Powder Flow: Advancing Characterisation, Modelling, and Industrial Control

Dear Colleagues,

Powders underpin a vast range of modern manufacturing processes, from pharmaceutical solid dosage forms and battery electrodes to additive manufacturing and fine chemicals. Despite their ubiquity, the reliable prediction and control of powder flow remains a major scientific and industrial challenge. The complex interplay between particle properties, inter-particle forces, processing history, external factors such as variation in temperature/relative humidity and operating conditions continues to limit process efficiency, product quality, and scale-up across many powder-based technologies.

Recent advances in experimental characterisation, instrumentation, and computational modelling are reshaping our understanding of powder flow behaviour. Novel measurement techniques, high-resolution particle analysis, and increasingly sophisticated simulation frameworks are enabling deeper insight into how particle-scale phenomena translate into bulk flow response. At the same time, industrial drivers—such as continuous manufacturing, digitalisation, and increased material complexity—are demanding more robust, predictive, and application-oriented approaches to powder flow assessment and control.

This Special Issue, entitled “Powder Flow: Advancing Characterisation, Modelling, and Industrial Control,” aims to showcase cutting-edge research that bridges fundamental understanding and practical implementation. We invite original research articles and reviews that address experimental, theoretical, and applied aspects of powder flow, with particular emphasis on approaches that link material characterisation to process performance and control.

Authors are encouraged to share supplementary datasets, experimental protocols, modelling frameworks, or validation studies that support reproducibility and broader adoption. Contributions demonstrating industrial relevance, cross-disciplinary perspectives, and real-world case studies are especially welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Advanced techniques for powder flow measurement and characterisation.
2. Influence of external factors affecting powder flowability.
3. Linking particle properties to bulk flow and process behaviour.
4. Modelling and simulation of powder flow (e.g., DEM and continuum approaches).
5. Powder flow in pharmaceutical, battery, and additive manufacturing processes.
6. Scale-up, variability, and robustness in powder handling operations.
7. Process monitoring, control, and digital tools for powder processing.
8. Industrial case studies and best-practice methodologies.

We look forward to your contributions and to collectively advancing the science and engineering of powder flow for next-generation manufacturing.

Dr. Vivek Garg
Dr. Tong Deng
Prof. Dr. Michael Bradley
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Powders is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• powder flow
• particle characterisation
• bulk powder behaviour
• particle technology
• discrete element modelling
• powder processing
• industrial powder handling
• process control