The new Version 21 of PERMAS and VisPER is available from July 2026.

The most important new PERMAS features:

• A new binary model format based on the HDF file format reduces file size and accelerates model import.
• Contact analysis introduces automatic surface splitting at large kinks substantially reducing modeling effort and improving efficiency and robustness.
• The new automatic search of contact partners automatically introduces the necessary surfaces and the corresponding contact definitions in the model.
• A completely new stabilized contact algorithm with great improvements in terms of stability and performance was developed for normal contact.
• A new default solver and more robust convergence criteria improve the performance and stability of nonlinear material analysis.
• Vibration analysis now also calculates Eigenpairs with negative Eigenvalues to deal with instabilities after a nonlinear material analysis.
• A new criterion for distinguishing between global and local mode shapes supports the automatic classification of vibrations.
• MAC factors can now also be computed for complex modes and for a single DOF to improve comparability with experimental measurements.
• It is now possible to reconstruct a matrix model from (measured) eigenmodes to be used internally or for export to e.g. MBS codes.
• The MLDR solver was adapted to deal with many additional static mode shapes (addmodes), especially contact addmodes.
• Dynamic contact and friction is now available in most dynamic analyses.
• Completely new time integration methods in timehistory analyses are available to improve stability and the treatment of nonlinear forces.
• The definition of loads for a transient response analysis now supports a variety of new features including automatic translation of PSD signals to the time domain and filter options.
• The handling of frequency-dependent material has been extended to rubber-like and absorbant materials.
• Rigid body modes can now be excluded from the modal basis used for modal transformation which is particularly beneficial for subsequent analyses, e.g. fatigue analysis.
• A new direct random response analysis is useful e.g. with the new frequency-dependent materials.
• A new stability criterion for the Harmonic Balance Method provides additional insight into the dynamic behavior of the computed solutions.
• The new direct fluid-structure coupled timehistory enables fully-copuled analysis for high frequency tasks, e.g. underwater acoustic for ships, noise-generation from brake squeal and many more.
• The fully integrated optimization based on damage results from a fatigue analysis provides an efficient and user-friendly workflow for fatigue-driven design optimization.
• The complete revision of the bead optimization method provides results that require significantly less design interpretation and accurately realize the geometric bead properties.
• Optimization can now consider load patterns which are defined by a result combination rule.
• A new option for global stress-based topology optimization considers stresses at the integration points instead of the element-averaged stresses.
• Direct matrix input now supports both symmetric and non-symmetric matrices, mass and damping matrices.

A new PERMAS binary model format based on the HDF file standard significantly accelerates model import. A new PERMAS binary model format based on the HDF file standard significantly accelerates model import. The right-hand diagram compares the file sizes of the PERMAS binary HDF format with the Medina binary (.bif) format and a compressed ASCII DAT file (.dat.gz) for a model of 4.5 million nodes and 2.5 million elements.
The PERMAS binary model format reducies the storage requirements to about half of those of the Medina binary (.bif) format. A single HDF file can store both model data and analysis results. PERMAS and VisPER provide full read and write support for the PERMAS binary model format, enabling seamless data exchange between preprocessing, analysis, and postprocessing.

Previously, surfaces with pronounced kinks had to be manually split at physical surface boundaries to achieve accurate contact behavior. The automatically generated split surfaces are now used directly in contact analyses.
Instead of smoothing contact normals across large kinks, they are treated as shared edges with separate normals on each side.
For the shown example only one surface per wheel is required. In earlier PERMAS versions, a total of 168 surfaces had to be defined manually, corresponding to four surfaces per tooth for 21 teeth on each wheel.

The new contact definition $CONTACT AUTO automatically will find potential contact partners, introducing the necessary surfaces and the corresponding contact definitions in the model. This feature dramatically speeds up contact modeling, makes the use of contact analyses more accessible, and significantly increases overall modeling efficiency and reliability due to:

• one contact definition leads to many contacts, i.e. less effort is necessary to define contacts,
• the automatic handling of contact normals, kinks and already defined MPCs leads to faster and more reliable contact modeling,
• no manually modeling of surfaces is necessary,
• for contact definitions with shells, the normal vector of the shell elements is automatically corrected if it does not match to the contact definition.