Physics-based Simulation of Tablet Disintegration and Dissolution

As the most used dosage form in the world, tablets are widely used for the mass production of drugs. The disintegration and dissolution kinetics of tablets play a vital role in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. It is also critical for evaluating the quality of drug formulations. This thesis reports a modeling and simulation approach of tablet disintegration and dissolution processes in a dissolution test device. By coupling the lattice Boltzmann method with the discrete element method, we simulate the hydrodynamics as well as the particle dynamics in the dissolution test device. Our computational methods could model the tablet structure,

disintegration of the tablet in the dissolution device, and dissolution of particles under the influence of hydrodynamics. The simulation results show that our computational methods can reproduce experimental results. Our methods pave the path toward an in-silico platform for tablet formulation design and verification.