Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of non-spherical particle suspensions

Particulate suspensions are used in many technical areas: ceramic processing, powder metallurgy and pharmaceutical applications being only a few examples. In many of these applications the microstructure determines the product quality. To further optimize the production processes a better understanding of the rheological behavior and the microstructure development inside the suspension is needed. Therefore, a direct numerical simulation method taking into account both particle interactions and hydrodynamics has been developed. It is used to investigate the particle orientation during the tape casting of thin ceramic sheets.