The main improvement provided by Code_Saturne 2.1 compared to the previous version (namely 2.0) are the following (for more information, one should refer to the ChangeLog entries):

  • Licensing: Code_Saturne is now fully GPL. Previous independant libraries (BFT, FVM, MEI) have changed from LGPL to GPL. A new library for SYRTHES coupling (PLE) is LGPL.
  • Packaging: Code_Saturne is now provided as a single package, grouping all existing libraries (BFT, FVM, MEI, libsyrcs). It also includes preliminary source code for SALOME plugin (CFDSTUDY module and Code_Aster coupling).
  • Code coupling: Code_Saturne 2.1 can be coupled with SYRTHES 4.0.0-10 (at least). SYRTHES 4.0 is a complete rewrite of SYRTHES 3.4 with many new features and should shortly be released. Code_Saturne 2.1 also contains preliminary code for Code_Aster coupling (more to come on this topic in next versions)
  • User interface: both the script user interface and the graphical user interface have been simplified and completed to enhance user experience. Just give a try to the new runcase script (and its Python overloading) and to the new features of the graphical interface (more to come also on this topic in next versions).
  • Advanced user features: a major overhauling of the code has been done including removing the reference to the phase number (and the number of phases) and re-writing the Fortran memory allocation by using everywhere possible dynamic memory allocation.
  • New mesh readers: Code_Saturne pre- and post-processing has been updated to support CGNS 3.1 and MED 3.0 format.
  • New turbulence models: two new turbulence models have been added, the Spalart-Allmaras model and an elliptic-blending v2-f model (developped at the University of Manchester).
  • Unified combustion modeling: coal and heavy-fioul oil combustion modeling have been re-written in order to unify part of the modeling. The existing coal modeling is still available.
  • Particles deposition modeling: a particles deposition model has been developped and integrated into the existing Lagrangian module.
  • Coupled algorithm: a new algorithm to solve the momentum equation in a coupled way has been introduced (it can be activated by setting the ivelco keyword to 1). It better accounts for the physics (periodicity of rotation, wall-treatment and symmetry implicitation). Note that not all features are available with this algorithm.
  • Documentation: the user manual has been slightly improve and a Doxygen documentation of the sources is now available. An installation manual is now provided too.
  • Configuration: a configuration file can be completed, either globally or by user, to setup some runtime options like the scratch directory, an optional mesh database or SYRTHES 4.0 version to be used.
  • Automatic V&V: a tool for automatic run of Code_Saturne has been developped, enabling the user to automatically run simulations, plot graphs and receive a PDF report by e-mail. It can be very useful for automatic Verification & Validation, though it is still in the very early stage of development.