preCICE v2: A sustainable and user-friendly coupling library

Open Res Eur. 2022 Sep 30:2:51. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.14445.2. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

preCICE is a free/open-source coupling library. It enables creating partitioned multi-physics simulations by gluing together separate software packages. This paper summarizes the development efforts in preCICE of the past five years. During this time span, we have turned the software from a working prototype -- sophisticated numerical coupling methods and scalability on ten thousands of compute cores -- to a sustainable and user-friendly software project with a steadily-growing community. Today, we know through forum discussions, conferences, workshops, and publications of more than 100 research groups using preCICE. We cover the fundamentals of the software alongside a performance and accuracy analysis of different data mapping methods. Afterwards, we describe ready-to-use integration with widely-used external simulation software packages, tests, and continuous integration from unit to system level, and community building measures, drawing an overview of the current preCICE ecosystem.

Keywords: co-simulation; computer simulation; conjugate heat transfer; fluid-structure interaction; multiphysics; multiphysics coupling.

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No [754462]; the International Graduate Research Group on Soft Tissue Robotics (GRK 2198/1); the DFG project preDOM (project number 391150578); the DFG SFB 1313 (project number 327154368); SPPEXA, DFG's Priority Program 1648 -- Software for Exascale Computing; the Competence Network for Scientific High Performance Computing in Bavaria (KONWIHR) by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts; the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) projects preCICE-ATHLET and geoKW; and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) by funding -- EXC2075 -- 390740016 under Germany's Excellence Strategy.