SALOME6THE OPEN SOURCE INTEGRATION PLATFORM FOR NUMERICAL SIMULATION

salome-platform.org

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DEVELOPMENT FACT SHEET

Project kick off 2001.

Development team 20 persons resulting in 200 eng.years.

Verification 4000 tests.

Bug tracking 500 corrections and evolutions /year.

Platform size 1 300 000 lines(90% C++, 10% Python).

Distribution one major versionevery two years,maintenance versions every sixmonths.

USERS

400 users at EDF and CEA

5000 external users

13000 downloads / year(web site)

1 Copyright © 2007-2012 CEA/DEN, EDF, Open CascadeCopyright © 2003-2007 CEA/DEN, EDF, Open Cascade, EADS/CCR,LIP6, CEDRAT, LEG, PRINCIPIA R&D, BUREAU VERITAS

Over the last decade, the improvements incomputer hardware and software havebrought significant changes in the capabili-ties of simulation software in the field of nuclear applications. New computer powermade possible the emergence of simulationsthat are more realistic (complex 3D geome-tries being treated instead of 2D ones), morecomplex (multi-physics and multi-scales beingtaken into account) and more meaningful(with propagation of uncertainties).

Since 2001, in order to facilitate and improvethis process, CEA and EDF have developed a

software platform named SALOME1 that provides tools for building more complexand integrated applications. The tool is dedicated to the code environment: integra-tion with CAD modules, meshing of CADmodels, definition of input files, codes coupling and visualization.

The platform has been built using a collabo-rative development approach and is there-fore available under the LGPL license(http://www.salome-platform.org). SALOMEprovides modules and services that can becombined to create integrated applications

that make the scientific codes easier to useand well interfaced with their environment.

SALOME is being actively developed withthe support of EURIWARE/Open Cascadewith 10 years of development effort of avery committed and dedicated team.

SALOME is used in nuclear research and in-dustrial studies by CEA and EDF in the fieldsof nuclear reactor physics, structural mechan-ics, thermo-hydraulics, nuclear fuel physics,material science, geology and waste management simulation, electromagnetismand radioprotection.

SALOME KEY FEATURESDrives scientific software towards standard-ized approaches (data exchange models, tech-nical choices).Supports interoperability between CAD modeling and computation software (CAD-CAE link). Provides a module structure that allows inte-gration and hosting of new scientific codes.Facilitates coupling between computationcodes. Provides a generic, user-friendly and efficientuser interface, which helps to reduce the costsand delays of carrying out the studies.Is qualified by CEA and EDF for industrial andR&D studies.Is based on an Open Source strategy to facili-tate collaborative development and to buildspecialized applications.

GENERAL PURPOSES FOR CEA ANDEDFMany projects at CEA and EDF now use SALOME, bringing technical coherence to thesoftware suites of these companies with the fol-lowing purposes:

Providing an integrated environment dedi-cated to the numerical simulation of physicalphenomena.Responding to the specific demands for qual-ity in the context of civil nuclear applications.Enabling elaborate schemes around legacyand state-of-the-art physics codes (workflows,code coupling).Taking advantage of high performance com-puting and visualization.

MAIN FUNCTIONALITIES & TECHNICAL CHOICESUser interface

The platform provides an environment whichcovers a complete study, starting from a CADcomponent to define the geometry up to thevisualization of the results, coupling differentcodes through a common data exchangemodel and a supervision / coupling tool.Two different modes of interaction with SALOME components are systematically provided:

- A graphic interface coupled with 3D graphicinteraction (Qt4, VTK),

- A text interface based on the Python language.Both modes provide the same set of functional-ities and SALOME offers easy short cuts fromone mode to the other.

Component embedding and solverintegration

As a platform for numerical simulation, SA-LOME has a very versatile and modular archi-tecture that can be extended with additionalcommands or modules developed either inPython or in C++.It is possible to integrate codes ranging fromlegacy ones to state-of-the-art ones (writtenin Python, C++, C or Fortran).Component wrapper generators are availablein order to facilitate the integration process.

Workflow supervisionWith the supervisor of the platform, a usercan define and control the execution of com-plex interconnected scientific applications oncomputer networks and clusters. They may berun either interactively or in batch mode.

www.salome-platform.org

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Figure 2: SALOME-MECA is an EDF application dedicated to the pre- and post-processing forthe Code_Aster® structural mechanics code (http://www.code-aster.org).

Figure 1: SALOME-TRIPOLI is a CEA application dedicated to the pre-processing of the TRIPOLIMonte Carlo code.

2 Code_Aster® is EDF’s numerical simulation software for structural analysis.3 Code_Saturne® is EDF’s general purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software.

Mesh and field managementThe platform relies on an internal data modelthat describes meshes and fields that arestored as sequences of HDF5 structures.Distributed meshes are also taken into account.Interpolations are also handled in order tomanage different meshes which are adaptedto each simulation.

> Figures 1 - 2

DOWNLOAD SALOMESALOME can be downloaded from the web site:http://www.salome-platform.org for severalLINUX distributions and WINDOWS. The site pro-vides tutorials, a forum section and gives accessto user documentation.

> Figure 3

SERVICE AND SUPPORTEURIWARE and Open Cascade provide a wholerange of services for SALOME towards profes-sional end-users including technical support andspecific training.Support services are available within a “à-la-carte” support program particularly suitedfor universities and academic organizations aswell as for small or larger industrial companies:

Helpdesk support for expert needs concern-ing a one-shot technical issue, delivered bymail or by phone within a guaranteed timeframe.Technical support for complex problem solvingthat requires the help of a qualified engineer.Expert consulting delivered on the end-userpremises by one of the SALOME expert.Assistance to create SALOME extension modules or solver integration.Patch request for an immediate access to cor-rection, bug fixing and intermediate certifiedreleases

For more details, consult: http://www.salome-platform.org/service-and-support/available-programs

Moreover, SALOME train-ing sessions are organ-ized on a regular basisand are available for end-users willing to familiar-ize themselves quicklywith SALOME or reach ahigh level for handlingcomplex studies.Other training sessionson CAE solvers that areintegrated with SALOME(such as Code_Aster®,Code_Saturne®), are pro-vided by partners of theSALOME ecosystem.Consult www.salome-platform.org to find thedate of the next trainingsession and book online.

SALOME ECO-SYSTEMSALOME can interoperate with advanced CADtranslators and commercial meshing algorithms.

PartnersCAE LINUX(r): Engineering Linux distribution.

DISTENE: provides commercial advanced and robust meshing algorithms BL-SURF andTetMesh-GHS3D.

CS: development of SALOME components.

DATAKIT: provides data exchangetechnologies.

DELTACAD: Code_Aster®2 in SALOME.

INCKA: Code_Saturne®3 in SALOME.

LOGILAB: development of SALOMEcomponents.

SALOME 7 AND BEYOND…The current development effort of the SALOMEteam encompasses the following topics:

Improvement of hexahedral mesh generationcapabilities.Enhanced functionalities to access high per-formance computing resources.Graphical user interface to give access to highlevel mesh and field algorithms.Standardization of study data management.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTRecent efforts in the development of SALOMEfor parallel computation have been supportedby System@tic, Paris region system and ICT cluster, in the frame of the IOLS, EHPOC,OpenHPC, ILMAB and OASIS projects.

Figure 3: http://www.salome-platform.org

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Figure 6: Elementary volume voxelization (CEA DEN)

Figure 5: GEOM CAD illustrating control rodpositioning. This geometry is part of a SALOME datapreprocessor for the DYN3D code built in the frameof the NURESIM European project (courtesy of FZR,Forschung Zentrum Dresden)

Figure 4: Geometrydefined for a numerical

analysis of distortionfollowing thermal shocks

on a valve (EDF/R&D/MMC)

This module provides a rich set of commandsto create, edit, import or modify a complexCAD model.The module is powered by a geometry kernelbased on the Open CASCADE Technologywhich provides a Boundary representation

of the model (BRep) and maintains the topo-logical structure required by the subsequentmeshing operations.

SALOME can import geometry from IGES,STEP, in BREP(r) and ACIS(r) format4. It alsoprovides a powerful set of shape-healingfunctionalities that can be used to simplifythe model or to repair poorly defined

imported models.

The GEOMETRY module functionalities canbe accessed through the graphical user interface (GUI). They can also be accessedprogrammatically in the SALOME Python execution engine that allows building complex automated scripts.

MAIN FUNCTIONALITIESImport of CAD models:

Natively supported formats: ACIS, BREP, STEP,IGESOther formats available through commercialcomponents, upon request: CATIA V4 /ProEngineer (c) / SolidWorks / SolidEdge /Parasolid / Nx

Creation / modification of CAD models:Basic objects: point, line, circle, ellipse, arc,curve, vector, planeSketching: 2D sketch, 3D sketchPrimitives: box, cylinder, sphere, cone, torus,rectangle, disk

Topology objects: edge, wire, face, shell, solid,compound; explode object to sub-shapesTransformations: translation, rotation, mirroring, scalingBoolean operations: fuse, common, cutExtended operations: extrusion, revolution,chamfer, fillet, pipeGrouping objects

Shape-healing: Suppress faces, close open contour, remove internal wires, remove holes, sewing, gluefaces, check free boundaries, check free faces,change orientation, add point on edge

Measures:Point coordinates, center of mass, inertia,bounding box, minimum distance, tolerance,angle

Export of CAD models:Supported formats: ACIS, BREP, STEP, IGESIntegration of external CAD reader / writer

Visualization:

Display / erase, change color, transparency,display mode (shading / wireframe), numberof isometric lines, etc.

> Figures 4 - 5 - 6 - 7

4. Note: Additional direct CAD translators for popular CAD formatssuch as CATIA V4®, CATIA V5®, Parasolid®, SolidWorks®,SolidEdge®, Siemens NX®, ProEngineer® can be purchased fromOpenCascade.ACIS®, ProEngineer®, Catia®, SolidWorks®, NX®, Parasolid® areregistered trademarks of their respective owners.

Figure 7: Vibration behaviour of the stator of a 900MW electrical generator(EDF/R&D/AMA)

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Figure 8: Visualization of the mesh of a Gas Fast Reactor fuelplate (CEA/DEN)

This module transforms the 3D solid shapesdefined in the GEOMETRY module into finite-elements. The MESHING module isused to create and edit the mesh data andincludes a variety of different open sourceor 3rd parties meshing algorithms.

A concept of sub-meshes can beused to take into account the specific features of the geometricalmodel. A different set of condi-

tions can be applied to each sub-mesh.Mesh effective refining can be performedusing pattern mapping. A complete toolbox enables the user to verify the mesh quality and to perform local modification or adjustment.Transformation operations can be used toproduce complex meshes or compounds.Meshes can be grouped to facilitate the

visualization and help the definition of initialboundary conditions. Filters can be effectivelyused for group creation.All mesh commands are also available pro-grammatically via the python interface, allowing scripts to handle complex studies.

To improve the quality of the results of thesimulation, mesh adaptation offers an effec-tive compromise, combining a fine mesh witha low computational cost. The HOMARD®5

module allows refinement and coarseningtechniques to adapt the mesh, according tothe numerical error of the simulation.

HOMARD® is designed to operate in association with 2D/3D element such as triangles, quadrangles, tetrahedrons and/ or hexahedrons. The whole mesh can be conformal or not.The selection of the elements to refine ismade either by the value of a field over theelements and a threshold, by a group or bya geometrical zone. Splitting their edges in2 refines these elements. The transition between different refinement zones istreated with special elements.The fields can be interpolated from the oldmesh to the new one.If the boundary of the mesh is curved, thenew nodes can be moved onto that line orsurface.Mesh data are imported and exported underthe MED format. They are included in thetree of the Meshing module.All HOMARD® instructions can be providedeither through the graphical user interfaceor via the python interface.

MAIN FUNCTIONALITIESMeshing algorithms:

Open Source (Wire discretization, Triangulation, Quadrangle, Hexahedron,Tetrahedron, 3D Extrusion)Commercial (available upon request): Distene (BL-SURF, TetMesh-GHS3D, Hexotic)

Mesh modification:Add / remove nodes, elementsDiagonal inversionSplitting of quadrangles to triangles; joining of triangles into quadranglesTransformation: translation, rotation, mirroring, sewing, merging, scalingSmoothing, extrusion, revolutionPattern mappingDiagonal inversion

Import / export mesh data:Supported formats: MED, UNV, DAT

Mesh group s managementMeasures Visualization:

Display/erase meshes, sub-meshes; visualization modes: shading, wireframe, shrink; change display properties (color, lines width, shrink coefficient, transparency)

Mesh data Quality controls:Length of edges; area, volume; freenodes, edges, faces, boundaries; skew, taper, warping angle; 2D and 3D aspect ratio; minimum angle; etc.

> Figures 8 - 9

MAIN FUNCTIONALITIESMesh:

Edges, triangles, quadrangles, tetrahedronsand/or hexahedronsConformal or notDegree 1 or 2 (exclusive)Groups of elements are preserved Equivalence of elements are preserved

Governing parameters:Uniform refinementA field: comparison of a refinement thresholdand the local norm of the field or the jumpbetween two elementsGeometrical zone: sphere, box, cylinder Filtering with group of elements

Curved boundaries:Discrete description for lines with a specific1D meshAnalytical description for surfaces: cylinder,sphere

Field management:Interpolation P0, P1, P2, iso-P2

Import / export mesh data:Supported format: MED

> Figure 10

5 HOMARD® is EDF’s software for the mesh adaptation.

Figure 9: Vibration behaviour of the stator of a 900MWelectrical generator (EDF/R&D/AMA)

Figure 10: Mesh adaptation during the simulation of atunnel excavation (EDF R&D / SINETICS)

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MAIN FUNCTIONALITIESImport / export mesh data with results,supported formats: MED and allParaView-supported formatsImport / export table data:

Supported formats: CSV

Iterative filtering of the simulationresults:

Threshold, Clip, subset selection, cuttingplane

Graphical representation:3D views: Meshes, scalar map, iso-surfaces,

Gauss points, vectors, stream lines, …2D views: 2d plots, histogramSpreadsheetComparative views

Animation:Over timeAny visualisation parameter

Fully scriptableRemote and parallel visualizationcapabilities

> Figures 11 - 12

Figure 13: 2D interpolation between a grid meshed withtriangles and a similar geometry meshed with quadrangles

Figure 14:MEDSPLITTERsplit of arepresentativeelementaryvolume forconcretematerial

(context: chemicaldegradation, CEA/DEN)

Figure 12: Postprocessing of a stress analysis study (EDFR&D/SINETICS)

Figure 11: Power density in a coupled thermalhydraulics /neutronics calculation (CEA DEN)

In SALOME, the MED data model for meshesand fields plays a crucial role. This MED format comes from an open source projectin EDF R&D that is anterior to SALOME. It defines normalization for the semantics ofmesh, sub-mesh and data-field representa-tions. In addition to this normalization, theproject also provides a library (MED-file),which is an HDF5 implementation of thenorm. SALOME meshing and visualisationmodules propose import/export with MEDformat. Therefore, codes that use SALOMEfor pre- or post-processing are advised touse MED-file for input and output files.MED format is generic and flexible enoughto accommodate meshes with a variety of computation codes. Meshes can be struc-tured, unstructured, contain linear or quadratic elements. Connectivities can be defined by nodal representation or descending representation. Multi time stepsfields can include Gauss points, lie over sub-zones of a moving mesh over time. MEDlibrary ensures complete compatibility withprevious MED versions, making the use ofdifferent SALOME versions effortless.

TOOLS PROVIDEDOn top of the MED-file library, SALOME providesMED module that proposes a set of down-topsorted libraries that offers a set of services goingfrom elementary operations on cells up to advanced operations on multi timesteps fieldsand meshes. The proposed set of libraries gives developers flexibility between the services andthe number of prerequisites. Typical MED mod-ule use is the mounting of MED content files inmemory to perform manipulations over themeshes and fields and to write them back. Thesealgorithms enable fields manipulation with HPCconstraints, Boolean operations over the meshsub zones and interpolation between differentmeshes. They are valuable in the context of codecoupling when the data coming from a code ismost of the time not directly usable by the targetcode, but requires some manipulation.

Other tools are also provided with theMED-memory library:

ParaMEDMEM, parallel interpolation for computing remappings between codes lyingon distributed mesh representationsCALCULATOR, to manipulate multi time stepsfields contained coming from MED File easily.MEDSPLITTER, a tool based on METIS andSCOTCH graph libraries that creates parti-tioned meshes for use in parallel codesRENUMBER, a tool that computes cell renum-bering to improve the numerical characteristicsof the numerical schemes running on themeshesConverters for VTK, UNV SAUV mesh formats

> Figures 13 - 14

Numerical solvers operated by SALOME gen-erate results that can be analyzed within theParaViS module. This module has been improved by integrat-ing ParaView into SALOME, and exposes allthe functionalities of this award-winning post-processor tool.A wide range of representations are availableto the physicists to explore the datasets: sur-face, volume, gauss points... The data canthen be analyzed by using one of many filtersto extract significant data: clip, threshold, iso-surface, stream lines, elevation surface…

Quantitative information can be extracted us-ing the data analysis tools: taking a selectionof the data, histograms, 2D plots of time-plots are one click away.All these features can be animated withinthe module to analyze time-varying data,sweep a cutting plane through the dataset,or animate a modal analysis.This module is fully scriptable in python tocreate visualizations in batch when necessaryor to repeat analysis on ensemble runs, andcan use visualization clusters to interactivelyanalyze large datasets.

Geometry Meshing

Thermics

Mechanics

Visualization

Electromagnetism

Power

Boundarytemperature

Boundarytemperature

Solidtemperature

Interpolation

Interpolation

Interpolation

Interpolation

Fluid mechanics

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There is an increasing need for multidisciplinary parametric simulationsin various research and engineering fields. Fluid-structure interactionand thermal coupling are two examples.The tools used in numerical simulation have become very sophisticatedin their own domains, so multidisciplinary simulation can be achievedby coupling the existing codes.> Figure 15

HOW TO BUILD SALOMECOMPONENTS THAT CAN BECOUPLED WITH YACSTo couple calculation codes with YACS, it is es-sential to transform them into SALOME compo-nents. This operation requires a good knowledgeof SALOME principles but in most cases, it ispossible to use helper tools. The YACSGEN toolautomatically generates the necessary SALOMEembedment starting from a description of theselected coupling interface (for Fortran, C++and Python calculation codes).

JOBMANAGER MODULEDESCRIPTIONJOBMANAGER module allows creating, launch-ing and following calculation jobs on differenttypes of computers.

JOBMANAGER MAINFUNCTIONALITIES The JOBMANAGER module allows todefine three types of jobs:

User scripts.Python scripts launched in a SALOME session.YACS schemas.

The module can use different types ofcomputers:

Interactive computers (rsh, ssh).Clusters managed by batch systems like PBS,

LSF, SGE, LOADLEVELER or SLURM.

> Figure 22

Figure 15:Multidisciplinary

simulationexample

Figure 16: View of YACS GUI

Figure 18: Calculation scheme for the repository sizeoptimisation of several different HLW packages with theEDF thermal Code_Syrthes®, distributed on a clustercomputer (EDF/R&D/SINETICS)

Figure 19: Geometricrepresentation of a HLW disposalcell (EDF/R&D/SINETICS)

Figure 22: Example of job launching with the JOBMANAGER

Figure 20: Zoom on themesh of the disposal cell

(EDF/R&D/SINETICS)

Figure 21: Temperature field after several years in thedisposal cell (EDF/R&D/SINETICS)

Figures 18-21: Thermal model for the study of High Level Waste (HLW) geologicaldisposal (EDF/R&D/SINETICS).

YACS is a tool for managing multidisciplinarysimulations through calculation schemes.A calculation scheme defines a chaining or acoupling of calculations (SALOME or calculationcomponents and Python scripts).

YACS MAIN FUNCTIONALITIESYACS module allows building, editing and exe-cuting calculation schemes.

Main functionalities of the module are:Create a calculation schemaImport/export of a schema into an xml fileImport a catalog of calculation nodesEdit a schema:- Add/Remove a calculation node- Connect nodes- Change node information- Undo/Redo actionsRepresent and visualise a schema:- Auto-arrange schema nodes- Rebuild links between nodes- Shrink/Expand parts of a schemaControl the execution of a schema:- Execute a schema- Suspend/Resume execution- Step-by-step execution and breakpoints- Save/Restore execution stateUse different kinds of calculation nodes:- Service nodes (distributed services)- Python nodes (inline or distributed)- Sequential loop node (for, while)- Parallel loop (for parametric studies)- Switch node (switch, case)- Optimizer loop (for optimization

algorithms)

Figure 17: Execution graph of a coupled neutonics-thermalhydraulics calculation. On top of the executiongraph, convergence history and 2D maps are displayedduring the calculation (CEA/DEN)

CONTACT US:

Vincent Bergeaud vincent.bergeaud@cea.frVincent Lefebvre vincent.lefebvre@edf.frÉtienne Rossignon etienne.rossignon@euriware.fr @

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EDF R&D 1, avenue du Général de Gaulle, 92141 Clamart Cedex, Francewww.edf.com

Open CascadeFiliale d’EURIWARE, groupe AREVA,1 place des frères Montgolfier78044 Guyancourt, Francewww.opencascade.com

Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, CEA-Saclay, DEN, DM2S, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, Francewww.cea.fr