Solver library
Basic solver provides interfaces to the simulation system and to units.
Currently in Dyssol, you can develop your own agglomeration solver and add it to the solver library. Please refer to Solver development for detailed information.
The solver can also be added to a unit as a parameter.

Agglomeration solvers
Solvers are applied to calculate the birth and death rate of agglomerates according to different mathematical models. In Dyssol, 3 types of solver are available:
Cell average
Fast Fourier transformation (FFT)
Fixed pivot
The applied equations in all solvers are listed as follows.
Note
Notations:
\(v,u\) – volumes of agglomerating particles
\(n(v,t)\) – number density function
\(B_{agg}(n,v,t)\), \(D_{agg}(n,v,t)\) – birth and death rates of particles with volume \(v\) caused due to agglomeration
\(\beta_0\) – agglomeration rate constant, dependent on operating conditions but independent from particle sizes
\(\beta(v,u)\) – the agglomeration kernel, see section Kernels.
\(t\) – time
Cell average solver
This solver calculates the birth rate \(B_{agg}(n,v,t)\) and death rate \(D_{agg}(n,v,t)\) using a cell average technique.
Note
solid phase and particle size distribution are required for the simulation. Equidistant volume grid for particle size distribution must be used.
See also
J.Kumar, M. Peglow, G. Warnecke, S. Heinrich, An efficient numerical technique for solving population balance equation involving aggregation, breakage, growth and nucleation, Powder Technology 182 (1) (2008), 81-104.
FFT solver
This solver calculates the birth rate \(B_{agg}(n,v,t)\) and death rate \(D_{agg}(n,v,t)\) based on a separable approximation of the agglomeration kernel and a subsequent fast Fourier transformation.
The agglomeration kernel \(\beta (v,u)\) is represented in a separable form with the separation rank \(M\) as:
Then birth and death rate terms are transformed to following equations with \(\psi_i = a_i\,n\) and \(\varphi_i = b_i\,n\).
The separation turns the birth rate agglomeration integral into a convolution form \(\varphi_i * \psi_i\), which after piecewise constant discretization, is computed based on the convolution theorem
applying the direct and inverse fast Fourier transformation (\(FFT/IFFT\)) and the elementwise product \(\odot\).
Note
List of kernels separation equations
Kernel |
Separation equation |
---|---|
Constant |
\(\beta(u,v) = \sum\limits_{i=1}^1 a_i(v)\,b_i(u),\) \(a_1 (v) = 1, b_1 (u) = 1\) |
Sum |
\(\beta(u,v) = \sum\limits_{i=1}^2 a_i(v)\,b_i(u),\) \(a_1 (v) = v, a_2 (v)= 1, b_1 (u) = 1, b_2 (u)= u\) |
Brownian |
\(\beta(u,v) = \sum\limits_{i=1}^3 a_i(v)\,b_i(u),\) \(a_1 (v) = \sqrt{2}, a_2 (v) = v^{\frac{1}{3}}, a_3 (v)= v^{-\frac{1}{3}}\) \(b_1 (u) = \sqrt{2}, b_2 (u) = u^{-\frac{1}{3}}, b_3 (u)= u^{\frac{1}{3}}\) |
Product, Shear, Peglow, Coagulation, Gravitational, Kinetic energy, Thompson |
Approximated by a rank-M separable function \(\beta (v,u) \approx \sum\limits_{i=1}^{M} a_i(v)\,b_i(u)\) using adaptive cross approximation |
Note
solid phase and particle size distribution are required for the simulation. Equidistant volume grid for particle size distribution must be used. Grid for particle size distribution must start from 0.
See also
V.Skorych, M. Dosta, E.-U. Hartge, S. Heinrich, R. Ahrens, S. Le Borne, Investigation of an FFT-based solver applied to dynamic flowsheet simulation of agglomeration processes, Advanced Powder Technology 30 (3) (2019), 555-564.
S.Le Borne, L. Shahmuradyan, K. Sundmacher, Fast evaluation of univariate aggregation integrals on equidistant grids. Computers and Chemical Engineering 74 (2015), 115-127.
Fixed pivot solver
This solver calculates the birth rate \(B_{agg}(n,v,t)\) and death rate \(D_{agg}(n,v,t)\) using a fixed pivot technique.
Note
solid phase and particle size distribution are required for the simulation.
See also
S.Kumar, D. Ramkrishna, On the solution of population balance equations by discretization – I. A fixed pivot technique. Chem. Eng. Sci. 51 (8) (1996), 1311-1332.