3D hydrodynamics and shear rates' variability in the United States Pharmacopeia Paddle Dissolution Apparatus

The 3D hydrodynamics and shear rates distributions within the United States Pharmacopeia Apparatus 2 have been investigated in this paper. With the help of a CFD package, several geometric modifications to the device were evaluated in this study. Specially, we examine the influence of impeller clearance, blade diameter, shape of the vessel base and shape of the lower part of blade. Increasing the impeller clearance was observed to exacerbate the heterogeneity in shear and would likely result in greater variability in dissolution measurements. Use of moderate blade diameter and dished bottom were observed to reduce shear heterogeneity in the regions where tablets are most likely to visit during testing. The comparative analysis shows better reproducibility and accelerated dissolution rates with the modified vessel shape, the dished bottom can enhance mixing near the vessel base when compared with the flat bottom. Increasing length of the lower edge of the paddle was observed to generate high radial pumping and to enlarge the dead zone located at the center of the vessel base.