SPHERA v.9.0.0: A Computational Fluid Dynamics research code, based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics mesh-less method

Abstract

SPHERA v.9.0.0 (RSE SpA) is a FOSS CFD-SPH research code validated on the following application fields: floods with transport of solid bodies and bed-load transport; fast landslides and their interactions with water reservoirs; sediment removal from water bodies; fuel sloshing tanks; hydrodynamic lubrication for energy efficiency actions in the industrial sector. SPHERA is featured by several numerical schemes dealing with: transport of solid bodies in fluid flows; treatment of fixed and mobile solid boundaries; dense granular flows and an erosion criterion. The source and executable codes, the input files and the free numerical chain of SPHERA v.9.0.0 are presented. Some reference validations and applications are also provided. SPHERA is developed and distributed on a GitHub public repository. Program summaryProgram title: SPHERA v.9.0.0Program files doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/pwv9rsf3w8.1Code Ocean capsule: https://doi.org/10.24433/CO.7457751.v1Licensing provisions: GNU General Public License 3Programming language: Fortran 95Supplementary material: software documentation/guide, 34 tutorialsNature of problem: SPHERA v.9.0.0 has been applied to free-surface and multi-phase flows involving the following application fields: floods (with transport of solid bodies, bed-load transport and a domain spatial coverage up to some hundreds of squared kilometres), fast landslides and wave motion, sediment removal from water reservoirs, fuel sloshing tanks, hydrodynamic lubrication.Solution method: SPHERA v.9.0.0 is a research FOSS (“Free/Libre and Open-Source Software”) code based on the SPH (“Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics”) technique, a mesh-less Computational Fluid Dynamics numerical method for free surface and multi-phase flows. The five numerical schemes featuring SPHERA v.9.0.0 deal with: dense granular flows; transport of solid bodies in free surface flows; boundary treatment for both mobile and fixed frontiers; 2D erosion criterion.Additional comments including restrictions and unusual features: SPHERA v.9.0.0 is a 3D research FOSS (“Free/Libre and Open-Source Software”) code (developed under the subversion control system Git) with peculiar features for: floods (with transport of solid bodies, bed-load transport and a domain spatial coverage up to some hundreds of squared kilometres), fast landslides and wave motion, sediment removal from water reservoirs, fuel sloshing tanks, hydrodynamic lubrication. The whole numerical chain of SPHERA is made of FOSS, freeware and Open Data numerical tools.