Eilmer: an Open-Source Multi-Physics Hypersonic Flow Solver

TL;DR

Eilmer is an open-source, versatile hypersonic flow solver supporting research in high-speed aerothermodynamics, with detailed documentation, development practices, and example simulations to aid new users.

Contribution

This paper presents Eilmer, a comprehensive open-source multi-physics solver for hypersonic flows, including its formulation, development process, and example applications.

Findings

Eilmer supports a wide range of hypersonic flow simulations.

The code adheres to good scientific programming practices.

Multiple example simulations demonstrate its capabilities.

Abstract

This paper introduces Eilmer, a general-purpose open-source compressible flow solver developed at the University of Queensland, designed to support research calculations in hypersonics and high-speed aerothermodynamics. Eilmer has a broad userbase in several university research groups and a wide range of capabilities, which are documented on the project's website, in the accompanying reference manuals, and in an extensive catalogue of example simulations. The first part of this paper describes the formulation of the code: the equations, physical models, and numerical methods that are used in a basic fluid dynamics simulation, as well as a handful of optional multi-physics models that are commonly added on to do calculations of hypersonic flow. The second section describes the processes used to develop and maintain the code, documenting our adherence to good programming practice and endorsing certain techniques that seem to be particularly helpful for scientific codes. The final section describes a half-dozen example simulations that span the range of Eilmer's capabilities, each consisting of some sample results and a short explanation of the problem being solved, which together will hopefully assist new users in beginning to use Eilmer in their own research projects.