SimNanoDOME is a SimPhoNy wrapper that is intended to be used for investigating gas-phase nano-particle synthesis using a Direct-Current (DC) plasma source. The wrapper makes available to the user three different models of increasing complexity and computational time:
- Moment method (Low Accuracy): is the cheapest one in terms of computational cost and returns to the user the mean diameter, the mean number density and the mean volume fraction of the nano-particle population. No PSD (Particle Size Distribution) is returned.
- PBM (Medium Accuracy): the Population Balance Method returns to the user the Size Distribution of both Particles and Aggregates/Agglomerates by means of diameter, number density and volume fraction.
- CGMD (High Accuracy): is the most expensive method which can return to the user the same results of PBM method with the addition of the direct simulation of the aggregates/agglomerates formation, thus allowing to compute the Fractal dimension of the nano-particle population and each particle's internal structure.
Contact: Giorgio La Civita and Emanuele Ghedini from the DIN, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna.
This wrapper requires OpenFOAM, compiled not only with its third party
packages, but also with several add-ons from the
Industrial Engineering department at UNIBO.
In addition, commit
a727b69
from the ontodome library is required.
The UNIBO DIN add-ons release v1.0.0 for OpenFOAM are also required.
Since such a set-up is fairly complex,
a Dockerfile
is provided and is the recommended way of use (a couple of hours is required for the image to build). It can be used not only to build a docker image where the wrapper
can be run but also as a guideline for setting up the environment on your own system. Visit the
"Docker" section of the documentation
for more details.
After having installed said requirements, the installation of the wrapper itself is rather simple. Start by cloning this repository
git clone https://github.com/simphony/SimNanoDOME
and then install the Python package (for example, using
pip
).
pip install simnanodome
pip
will take care of automatically installing and/or
updating SimPhoNy if needed.
After that, use SimPhoNy's ontology management tool,
pico
, to install
the ontology that the wrapper requires in order to operate, which is included
with the code.
pico install simnanodome/ontology.simnanofoam.yml
Visit SimNanoDOME's documentation
to learn how to use the wrapper. You may also have a look at the
examples
folder
for additional examples.