Case Study: Argonne National Laboratory achieves containerless pharmaceutical processing with COMSOL acoustic levitation simulation

Argonne National Laboratory levitates droplets at 22 KHz with Comsol

Argonne National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy laboratory, needed to improve the design of an acoustic levitator for containerless processing to create high-purity amorphous pharmaceuticals. They turned to vendor Comsol and used the COMSOL Multiphysics® software with its Acoustics Module, Particle Tracing Module, and CFD Module to simulate the complex multiphysics involved.

Comsol's simulation software allowed the researchers to model the acoustophoretic forces, fluid-structure interaction, and droplet formation, which was verified against synchrotron-based x-ray experiments. The results from the Comsol simulation were consistent with the high-speed photographs taken during experiments, successfully validating their design. This enabled Argonne to control the process and advance a powerful technique for developing more bioavailable medicines.

Argonne National Laboratory