GeoDict – The Digital Material Laboratory

GeoDict® is an innovative and easy-to-use simulation software for digital material research and development, developed and distributed by the company Math2Market. Math2Market is a spin-off of our department »Flow and Material Simulation«.

GeoDict® offers the complete solution for multi-scale 3D image processing and image analysis, modeling of materials, visualization, material property characterization, simulation-based material development, and optimization of processes.

Whether for newly-designed or existing materials, computer-based simulations provide qualitative and quantitative understanding of geometric and physical properties of materials.

Some of the properties assessed by simulation are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to measure in the laboratory. Frequently, the laboratory test destroys the sample and makes it unavailable for the analysis of other properties. Thus, the use of simulations complements and completes laboratory measurements, contributing not only detailed information but also new insights.

Simulation is Versatile and Readily Applicable in Many Fields:

Nonwovens, foams, ceramics, and other porous materials are increasingly used as technical materials with unique properties (e.g. lightweight, insulating materials, efficient filter materials, or high-performance electrodes). Composite materials often combine several, sometimes conflicting material characteristics (light and stable), so that determining an »optimal material« is a complex task. Extensive experimental testing and prototype development are the prevailing way to develop materials with specific requirements of strength, permeability, conductivity, etc.

In other sectors, such as Oil & Gas Exploration and Production, the materials are not designed and produced, but instead are readily occurring in nature. Highly critical decision-making for profitability in these sectors is shaped by being able to timely, accurately, and reliably evaluate through simulations the petrophysical parameters of reservoir rocks at the pore scale, that ultimately characterize the reservoir at a larger scale.

Benefits of Using the GeoDict® Software:

• Fast simulation of experiments to determine material properties.
• Repeated, non-destructive prediction of material properties.
• Reduction, or even elimination, of need for expensive and time-consuming laboratory tests and prototyping.
• Simulation-driven design of innovative materials to fit requirements for many industrial sectors.

Math2Market’s Ongoing and Strong Cooperation With ITWM:

Math2Market and Fraunhofer ITWM’s good and continued cooperation is visible in the integration of solvers developed at Fraunhofer ITWM into two GeoDict® modules. The integration with GeoDict® provides both solvers with a clear and user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI), which facilitates their wide distribution and use in the market.

Fraunhofer ITWM’s BEST Battery and Electrochemistry Simulation Tool is part of the BatteryDict module of GeoDict® used in the area of battery simulations. Various crucial developments of the BEST solver algorithms are a direct response to the needs of Math2Market clients using BatteryDict.

Fraunhofer ITWM’s FeelMath solver is integrated into the ElastoDict module of GeoDict® and used to simulate effective elastic properties and large deformations, with plasticity, damage and failure, for porous and composite materials.