Adding A New Problem

Introduction to Adding a New Problem

Different MAESTROeX problems are defined in sub-directories under Exec/ in SCIENCE/, TEST_PROBLEMS/, or UNIT_TESTS/. To add a problem, start by creating a new sub-directory—this is where you will compile your problem and store all the problem-specific files.

The minimum requirement to define a new problem would be a GNUmakefile which describes how to build the application and an input file which lists the runtime parameters. The problem-specific executable is built in the problem directory by typing make. Source files are found automatically by searching the directories listed in the GNUmakefile. Customized versions of any source files placed in the problem-directory override those with the same name found elsewhere. Any unique source files (and not simply a custom version of a file found elsewhere) needs to be listed in a file called GPackage.mak in the problem-directory (and this needs to be told to the build system—see below).

The GNUmakefile

A basic GNUmakefile begins with:

DEBUG   := FALSE
USE_MPI :=
USE_OMP :=

Here, DEBUG is false if we are building an optimized executable. Otherwise, the debug version is built—this typically uses less optimization and adds various runtime checks through compiler flags. USE_MPI and USE_OMP are set to true if we want to use either MPI or OpenMP for parallelization. If USE_MPI := TRUE, you will need to have the MPI libraries installed.

The next line sets the compiler to be used for compilation:

COMP := gnu

The MAESTROeX build system knows what options to use for various compiler families. The COMP flag specifies which compiler to use. Allowed values include intel, gnu, pgi, and cray.

USE_REACT set to true will turn on the reactions solvers.

USE_REACT := TRUE

The next line defines where the top of the MAESTROeX source tree is located.

MAESTROEX_HOME := ../../..

An MAESTROeX application is built from several packages (the multigrid solver, an EOS, a reaction network, etc.). The core MAESTROeX packages are always included, so a problem only needs to define the EOS, reaction network, and conductivities to use, as well as any extra, problem-specific files.

EOS_DIR          := helmholtz
CONDUCTIVITY_DIR := constant
NETWORK_DIR      := ignition_simple

Bpack := ./Make.package
Blocs := .

Note that the microphysics packages are listed simply by the name of the directory containing the specific implementation (e.g. helmholtz). By default, the build system will look in Microphysics/EOS/ for the EOS, Microphysics/conductivity/ for the conductivity routine, and Microphysics/networks/ for the reaction network. To override this default search path, you can set EOS_TOP_DIR, CONDUCTIVITY_TOP_DIR, and NETWORK_TOP_DIR respectively.

Generally, one does not need to include the problem directory itself in Bpack and Blocs, unless there are unique source files found there, described in a Make.package file. These variables are interpreted by the Make.Maestro file and used to build a main list of packages called Bdirs. The build system will attempt to build all of the files listed in the various Make.package files found in the Bdirs directories. Furthermore, Bdirs will be will be added to the make VPATH, which is the list of directories to search for source files. The problem directory will always be put first in the VPATH, so any source files placed there override those with the same name found elsewhere in the source tree.

By default, some of the runtime parameters are listed in _parameters file in each problem directory.

PROBIN_PARAMETER_DIRS := .

They are parsed at compile time and the file extern.F90 is written and compiled. This is a Fortran module that holds the values of the runtime parameters and makes them available to any routine via probin_module.

The final line in the GNUmakefile includes the rules to actually build the executable.

include $(MAESTROEX_HOME)/Exec/Make.Maestro

Handling Problem-Specific Source Files

As mentioned above, any source files placed in the problem directory override a files with the same name found elsewhere in the source tree. This allows you to create a problem-specific version of any routine. Source files that are unique to this problem (i.e. there is no file with the same name elsewhere in the source tree) need to be listed in a file Make.package in the problem directory, and the problem-directory needs to be explicitly listed in the Bpack and Blocs lists in the GNUmakefile.

Defining Runtime Parameters

The runtime parameters for the core MAESTROeX algorithm are listed in _cpp_parameters file in MAESTROeX/Source/param/ folder. That file is parsed at compile-time by the parse_maestro_params.py script (along with any problem-specific parameters) in the same folder. The script outputs the extern.F90``source file. Each line in the ``_cpp_parameters file has the form:

*parameter*    *data-type*    *value*    *need in Fortran?*

where parameter is the name of the runtime parameter, data-type is one of {string, Real, int, bool}, the value specifies the default value for the runtime parameter, and need in Fortran? is marked y only if that parameter is used in Fortran. Comments are indicated by a ‘#’ character and are used to produce documentation about the available runtime parameters. For the documentation, runtime parameters are grouped together in the _cpp_parameters file into categories. The category headings are defined by comments in the _cpp_parameters file and any comments following that heading are placed into that category.

At runtime, the default values for the parameters can be overridden either through the inputs file (by adding a line of the form: parameter = value) or through a command-line argument (taking the form: -parameter value). The probin_module makes the values of the runtime parameters available to the various functions in the code (see § Runtime Parameters).

Problem-specific runtime parameters should be defined in the problem-directory in a file called _parameters. This file will be automatically found at compile time.

Preparing the Initial Model

MAESTROeX models subsonic, non-hydrostatic flows as deviations from a background state in hydrostatic equilibrium. The solution in MAESTROeX is broken up into a 1D base state and the 2- or 3D full state. The job of the 1D base state in the algorithm is to represent the hydrostatic structure. The full, Cartesian state carries the departures from hydrostatic equilibrium. The underlying formulation of the low Mach number equations assumes that the base state is in hydrostatic equilibrium. At the start of a simulation, the initial model is read in and taken as the base state. Therefore, any initial model needs to already be in hydrostatic equilibrium.

An initial model is generated by initial_models found in the same github repo as MAESTROeX. You can obtain it via:

git clone https://github.com/AMReX-Astro/initial_models

In general, there are two different proceduces that are needed. The first type modify an existing 1D initial model produced somewhere else (e.g. a 1D stellar evolution code), and map it onto a uniform grid, at the desired resolution, using the desired equation of state and discretization of hydrostatic equilibrium. The second type generate the initial model internally, by integrating the condition of hydrostatic equilibrium together with a simplifying assumption on the energy (e.g. isothermal or isentropic). In both cases hydrostatic equilibrium is enforced as:

(94)\[\frac{p_{i+1} - p_i}{\Delta r} = \frac{1}{2} (\rho_i + \rho_{i+1}) g_{i+1/2}\]

Here, \(g_{i+1/2}\) is the edge-centered gravitational acceleration.

Full details on which initial model routine matches each problem and how the initial models are used to initialize the full state data can be found in § Initial Models.

Customizing the Initialization

The best way to customize the initialization (e.g. add perturbations) is to copy from one of the existing problems. The file initdata.f90 controls initialization of scalars (\(\rho\), \(\rho X_k\), \(\rho h\)) and velocity field. The reacting_bubble problem is a good starting point for plane-parallel and wdconvect is a good starting point for full spherical stars.