see also: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra

               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmyra

The user-friendly software package Palmyra allows you to design new composite materials and to calculate their physical properties:

With the geometry designer, the morphology of a heterogeneous compound can be specified by defining inclusions of different shapes and properties within a base material (matrix).

• A Monte Carlo simulation modifies the morphology by shaking the inclusions or by compressing the base cell.
• Material properties for the matrix and the various inclusions can be specified in different ways depending on the available parameters. Any isotropic or anisotropic material can be defined. Different crystal symmetry classes can be selected.
• The base cell with all inclusions is tesselated automatically by a morphology-adaptive finite element mesh algorithm to give a fully periodic 3-dimensional mesh.
• Physical properties of the heterogeneous material are computed using the direct energy minimization approach.
• Areas of highest pressures and stresses can be visualized to help you to understand where crack formation is most likely to occur.
• Areas of highest currents (electrical conductivity), highest flux rates (thermal conductivity, transport properties), etc. can be visualized to understand the local properties of composites.
• The easy-to-use manual helps users to understand the basic principles of Palmyra within a few hours and to be able to use the software productively.
• Hardware requirements are minimal on various platforms.
• Flexible license schemes give you plenty of freedom with your budget requirements.

Physical Properties
The following physical properties can be calculated with our new method:

• Elastic constants and stiffness of composites
• Thermal expansion coefficients
• Thermal conductivity
• Dielectric properties
• Electric conductance
• Optical properties (refraction index)
• Transport properties (permeability and diffusivity)

With the currently available version of Palmyra you can already calculate mechanical and thermal properties. Other properties can be computed with not yet publicly available test versions. If you have problems that must be solved immediately, feel free to contact infos@STOP-SPAM.MatSim.CH

Crystal Symmetry Classes
For the definition of the properties of the different phases of a composite the following crystal symmetry classes are available. These allow easy specification of the materials properties of the components.

• Isotropic materials
• Cubic symmetry
• Hexagonal and fiber symmetry
• Orthogonal symmetry
• Trigonal symmetry
• Tetragonal symmetry
• Monoclinic symmetry (with diad parallel to x2 or x3)
• Triclinic materials

For triclinic materials you can specify 21 independent elastic constants and 6 independent parameters for other physical properties. This allows you to use computed materials data from atomistic simulations etc.

Hardware requirements

Currently Palmyra runs on the following platforms:

• Windows XP, 7 (32 & 64 bit) 
• Linux
• HP-UX

The installation of the software is very easy and can be done by non-experts in a few minutes.