From SPHYSICS

Welcome to the SPHysics FAQ Page. If you do not find the answer to the question you were looking for, please try the other Forum pages:

1. What is SPHysics and what can it do?
2. Where can I download SPHysics?
3. Who wrote SPHysics?
4. What platforms does SPHysics run on?
5. How do I generate a geometry using SPHysics?
6. How do I run SPHysics on windows?
7. How do I run SPHysics on Linux
8. How do I visualize the results?
9. For which cases has SPHysics been validated?
10. What if I find a bug in the code?
11. Is there documentation for SPHysics?
12. How can I contribute to the development of SPHysics?

What is SPHysics and what can it do?

SPHysics is a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code written in fortran for the simulation of potentially violent free-surface hydrodynamics. For release version 1.0, the SPHysics code can simulate various phenomena including wave breaking, dam breaks, sloshing, sliding objects, wave impact on a structure, etc. More information on the technical capabilities can be found on the SPHysics home page.

Where can I download SPHysics?

Please see the Downloads Page.

Who wrote SPHysics?

SPHysics was written by a number of contributors from universities from around the world. For a list of code authors please see the Contributors page. The code took several years to develop, apply to test cases and improve.

What platforms does SPHysics run on?

The SPHysics source code is downloadable from the main Downloads page. Therefore, the code can run on any operating system or platform where you have a fortran compiler. (please see the following webpage for fortran compilers available on the internet). During development every effort has been made to ensure that the SPHysics code is as portable as possible. The code has been tested on the following operating systems and compilers:

Windows: Compaq Visual Fortran,

Silverfrost FTN95 (Formerly Salford)

GNU gfortran compiler, on Cygwin

Linux: GNU gfortran compiler, Intel fortran compiler

Mac: GNU gfortran

How do I generate a geometry using SPHysics?

The SPHysics code comes with 4 example cases in 2-D and 3 example cases in 3-D to give users an idea on how to generate their own geometries. The SPHYSICSgen_2D.f and SPHYSICSgen_3D.f codes can generated different geometries depending on the input (we use input files or keyboard entry). From version 1.4, the default setting for the code is to use one batch file to generate the geometry and run the code. If you just want to generate the geometry only (e.g. for checking purposes), follow these steps for 2-D (for 3-D just change 2D to 3D throughout):

Change to the directory: source\SPHYSICSgen2D\ Use one of the following options depending on your compiler: (i) gfortran on linux: make -f SPHYSICSgen_gfortran.mak (ii) ifort on linux: make -f SPHYSICSgen_ifort.mak (iii) CVF on windows: NMAKE/f"SPHYSICSgen_cvf.mak"

Then change to the relevant directory (run_directory/CaseN where N is a number) to run one of the example test cases (see below). Note the input files (CaseN.txt) require you to specify which compiler you wish to use (around the last line):

(i) for the Linux/Mac gfortran compiler use the value 1.

(ii) for the Linux/Mac ifort compiler use the value 2.

(iii) for the Windows CVF compiler use the value 3.

How do I run SPHysics on windows?

This depends whether you are using an Intergrated Development Environment (IDE). Generally, your compiler will produce SPHYSICS.exe which are then run from the command line:

SPHYSICS.exe

The code includes special subroutines to generate the appropriate compilation make files which can be adjusted for other compilers and operating environments. The code has been developed to run on Windows using Compaq Visual Fortran. For example, If you are using the Compaq Visual Fortran Compiler to run Case1, you can use the batch file:

.\Case1_windows_cvf.bat

This will compile SPHYSICSgen_2D/3D which will generate the geometry and subsequently compile the executable SPHYSICS_2D/3D under the directory \execs. The code will then start to run writing the output to a file called "sph.out" aswell as to the screen. Note the input files (CaseN.txt) require you to specify which compiler you wish to use (the last line); for the CVF compiler use the value 3.

How do I run SPHysics on Linux

The SPHysics code comes with batch files which are used to compile the source code and then run the codes. For example, for Case1 which is supplied with the code (under run_directory), at the command prompt, for the gfortran compiler type:

./Case1_unix_gfortran.bat

OR if you use the ifortran compiler

./Case1_unix_ifort.bat

This will compile SPHYSICSgen_2D/3D which will generate the geometry, the makefile SPHYSICS.mak and subsequently compile the executable SPHYSICS_2D/3D under the directory execs/. The code will then start to run writing the output to a file called "sph.out" aswell as to the screen. Note the input files (CaseN.txt) require you to specify which compiler you wish to use (the last line); for the gfortran compiler use the value 1, and for the Intel Compiler use the value 2.

How do I visualize the results?

Some basic visualisation tools are included with the source code. The results can be visualized either with Matlab or ParaView. In order to use ParaView, the raw data files require some processing which at present is done using some Matlab code. This will be converted to fortran source code soon.

From version 1.4, you can now use new fortran routines to generate the VTU files for use with ParaView. If you are running CaseN, copy and run the relevant batch file from \Post-Processing\fortranRoutines\ to \run_directory\CaseN\, e.g. on windows, copy PART2VTU_windows_cvf.bat to the CaseN directory, and then run from the command line using:

.\PART2VTU_windows_cvf.bat

For which cases has SPHysics been validated?

The code has been validated for a number of different test cases including dam breaks, waves hitting structures, breaking waves at beaches, Poiseuille flow, Couette flow. Interested readers are referred to the following publications for more detailed information Publication list.

What if I find a bug in the code?

A good rule of thumb is that in a commerical code there is a bug every 100 lines of code. If you find a bug in the SPHysics code, please let the developers know either by emailing us or by using the Forum pages.

Is there documentation for SPHysics?

Of course, download the guide here: SPHysics_v1.4.000_GUIDE.pdf April 2008

How can I contribute to the development of SPHysics?

For starters you can buy the main developers a drink of beer at the next conference or workshop. Failing that, you can post any new subroutines that you want to share with other users to the core SPHysics team. Periodically the core developers of SPHysics will meet and discuss future developments and directions of SPHysics. If your new subroutines are considered to be an invaluable addition to the code, they will be considered for inclusion in the next release version.