In the bulk material handling industry, engineers constantly face challenges when commissioning and operating material handling equipment. To overcome these challenges, engineers traditionally rely on a combination of empirical models, physical tests, and body of experiences as their primary design toolkit. Engineers are increasingly coming up against the limitations of these approaches due to the unpredictable nature of many raw bulk materials which can manifest in problems such as unexpected stagnation zones, blockage, segregation, excessive wear and dust generation.
For 30 years, LEAP Australia has worked closely with leading Australian researchers and industry professionals to apply cutting-edge Ansys simulation software tools to a range of bulk materials handling problems. At the centre of this work, Ansys Rocky has become the trusted tool for accurate predictions of bulk material flows. Ansys Rocky’s DEM solver has been proven to deliver valuable insights involving transfer chutes and conveyors, vibrating screens, hauler loading and dumping, primary and secondary crushers.
Rocky DEM simulation of Transfer Chute
Rocky DEM simulation of Vibrating Screen
Rocky DEM simulation of Hauler Dumping
Rocky DEM simulation of Cone Crusher
With its advanced DEM solver, Ansys Rocky provides a full picture of how bulk materials behave in a 3D environment – a task that most empirical models struggle with. On the other hand, Ansys Rocky also acts as a complementary and alternative predictive tool to physical scale modelling, which usually requires significant time and financial commitments. Early use of simulation with Ansys Rocky offers engineers a feasible pathway to predict the behaviour of wet and sticky materials in worst-case scenarios.
Advanced Capabilities – beyond traditional DEM
A feature that distinguishes Ansys Rocky from a typical DEM tool is its native smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) solver – a particle-based fluid dynamics simulation tool that has gained popularity in recent years. Through a single interface, engineers can use Ansys Rocky to seamlessly conduct DEM-SPH coupling simulations that predict the operation of wet processing applications such as wet milling and screening.
Rocky DEM-SPH simulation of SAG mill (animation courtesy of Weir Minerals)
In addition to modelling over-saturated bulk solids, Ansys Rocky’s SPH solver can also help model the fluid-like portion of a cohesive material with a very high moisture content. With this capability, Ansys Rocky unlocks the potential to model raw material flows of various moisture content, ranging from dry free flowing to fully saturated.
High moisture content material in a chute using DEM-SPH
Apart from the native multiphysics capability with DEM and SPH, Ansys Rocky also enables seamless coupling to other flagship Ansys products such as Mechanical (FEA), Fluent (CFD), and Maxwell (Emag). Through the coupling with Ansys Mechanical, engineers can transfer DEM wall loads obtained from Ansys Rocky to conduct structural FEA calculations of handling equipment. Through the coupling with Ansys Fluent, Ansys Rocky can provide an accurate prediction of dense fluid-solid flows. Through the coupling with Ansys Maxwell, Ansys Rocky offers a solution for special applications that leverages a magnetic field to sort charged particles.
CFD-DEM with dense phase pneumatic conveying
Emag-DEM simulation of magnetic separation
As the Elite Channel Partner for Ansys (part of Synopsys) in Australia and New Zealand, LEAP Australia is committed to continue providing our customers with first-class simulation tools and outstanding technical support from engineers with deep domain expertise. If you have an upcoming project that could benefit from engineering simulation, please reach out to LEAP Australia Pty Ltd at BULK 2026 (stand B05) or contact our team via https://www.leapaust.com.au/rocky/