Chrono : An Open Source Multi-physics Dynamics Engine
We provide an overview of a multi-physics dynamics engine called Chrono . Its forte is the handling of complex and large dynamic systems containing millions of rigid bodies that interact through frictional contact. Chrono has been recently augmented to su
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1 University of Parma, Parma, Italy University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA [email protected] 3 University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
Abstract. We provide an overview of a multi-physics dynamics engine called Chrono. Its forte is the handling of complex and large dynamic systems containing millions of rigid bodies that interact through frictional contact. Chrono has been recently augmented to support the modeling of fluid-solid interaction (FSI) problems and linear and nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA). We discuss Chrono’s software layout/design and outline some of the modeling and numerical solution techniques at the cornerstone of this dynamics engine. We briefly report on some validation studies that gauge the predictive attribute of the software solution. Chrono is released as open source under a permissive BSD3 license and available for download on GitHub. Keywords: Multi-physics modeling and simulation · Rigid and flexible multi-body dynamics · Friction and contact · Fluid-solid interaction · Granular dynamics · Vehicle dynamics · Parallel computing
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Overview of Chrono and its Software Infrastructure
Chrono is an open source software infrastructure used to investigate the time evolution of systems governed by very large sets of differential-algebraic equations and/or ordinary differential equations and/or partial differential equations [48,70]. Chrono can currently be used to simulate (i) the dynamics of large systems of connected bodies governed by differential-algebraic equations; (ii) controls and other first-order dynamic systems governed by ordinary differential equations; (iii) fluid–solid interaction problems governed, in part, by the Navier-Stokes equations; and (iv) the dynamics of deformable bodies governed by partial differential equations. Chrono can handle multi-physics problems in which the solution calls for the mixing of (i) through (iv). This dynamics simulation engine rests on five foundation components that provide the following basic functionality: equation formulation, equation solution, collision detection and proximity computation, support for parallel computing, and pre/post-processing, see Fig. 1. The first foundation component, called c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 T. Kozubek et al. (Eds.): HPCSE 2015, LNCS 9611, pp. 19–49, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-40361-8 2
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Fig. 1. An abstraction of the Chrono architecture. Chrono provides support for three application areas, namely multibody dynamics (MBD), FEA, and FSI, building on a five component foundation that handles the formulation of the equation of motion, numerical solution, collision detection, parallel and high-performance computing support, and pre/post processing tasks. An API (in blue) allows expert users to interact with Chrono. Toolkits such as Chrono::Vehicle, Chrono::Granular, etc. provide a lowentry point for users who need domain-specific Chrono support (Color figure online).
Equation Formulation, supports general-purpose modeling for large systems of rigid and flexible bod
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