Xcompact3D: An open-source framework for solving turbulence problems on a Cartesian mesh

Abstract

Xcompact3D is a Fortran 90–95 open-source framework designed for fast and accurate simulations of turbulent flows, targeting CPU-based supercomputers. It is an evolution of the flow solver Incompact3D which was initially designed in France in the mid-90’s for serial processors to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Incompact3D was then ported to parallel High Performance Computing (HPC) systems in the early 2010’s. Very recently the capabilities of Incompact3D have been extended so that it can now tackle more flow regimes (from incompressible flows to compressible flows at low Mach numbers), resulting in the design of a new user-friendly framework called Xcompact3D. The present manuscript presents an overview of Xcompact3Dwith a particular focus on its functionalities, its ready-to-run simulations and a few case studies to demonstrate its impact.

Keywords

• High-order finite-difference
• Turbulence
• Cartesian mesh
• High Performance Computing
• Computational Fluid Dynamics