A finite-difference Navier–Stokes solver for turbulent channel and open-channel flows, with immersed-boundary (IBM) rough walls, wall models, SGS modelling, an exact Reynolds-stress budget module, and a UAV actuator-disk rotor model. MPI-parallel (2decomp&fft pencils), with an optional single-GPU OpenACC build.
 Taylor–Green vortex, Re = 1600, 512³ DNS — vorticity magnitude |
 Rayleigh–Bénard convection — temperature |
 Turbulent flow over a wavy wall (ghost-cell IBM DNS) — streamwise velocity |
 Wall-modelled LES, channel Reτ = 395 — streamwise velocity and near-wall streaks |
- Fractional-step projection on a staggered MAC grid, RK3 time stepping, spectral pressure solver
- Periodic, wall (DNS no-slip or EQWM) and inflow/outflow boundaries; stretched wall-normal (and spanwise) grids
- Ghost-cell IBM from precomputed signed-distance fields; flat-wall and IBM equilibrium wall models
- Vreman SGS model, Boussinesq temperature, suspended-sediment transport, synthetic-eddy inflow
- Reynolds-stress budget statistics, line/slice probes, UAV actuator disk
sudo apt install gfortran libopenmpi-dev libfftw3-dev liblapack-dev libblas-dev cmake git
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release && cmake --build build -j$(nproc)
mkdir -p fields restart stats
mpirun -np 4 ./build/dopamine # reads ./input_parameters| Installation & Running | dependencies, CPU/GPU builds, output layout |
| Input Parameters | every namelist variable |
| Numerics | governing equations and discretisation |
| Examples | bundled example cases |
| Tools | GenSDF and post-processing scripts |
| Showcase Animations | how the animations above are made |
| Code Structure | repository layout |
| References | methods implemented |
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
See LICENSE for the full text.
The original form of the channel flow solver was shared by Adrian Lozano-Duran during my PhD and I am grateful for his generous help and support with the code. A large portion of this code was written while listening to some wonderful music — thanks to Myrath, Bloodywood, Leprous, Peekay, Ihsahn, and Gojira for the wonderful company during long debugging sessions.
If you use dopamine-fdm in your research, please consider citing the following publications.
- Lozano-Durán, A., & Bae, H. J. (2019). Characteristic scales of Townsend's wall-attached eddies. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 868, 698–725. doi:10.1017/jfm.2019.209 — original DNS solver
- Patil, A., & Fringer, O. (2022). Drag enhancement by the addition of weak waves to a wave-current boundary layer over bumpy walls. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 947, A3. doi:10.1017/jfm.2022.628 — IBM + DNS
- Patil, A., & García-Sánchez, C. (2025). Should we care about the spatial heterogeneity in coral reefs under unidirectional turbulent flows? arXiv:2506.03021 [physics.flu-dyn] — improved IBM
- Patil, A., Paranjothi, U. C. K., & García-Sánchez, C. (2025). GenSDF: An MPI-Fortran based signed-distance-field generator for computational fluid dynamics applications. SoftwareX, 30, 102117. — GenSDF
BibTeX
@article{lozanoduran2019characteristic,
title={Characteristic scales of {T}ownsend's wall-attached eddies},
author={Lozano-Dur{\'a}n, Adri{\'a}n and Bae, Hyunji Jane},
journal={Journal of Fluid Mechanics},
volume={868},
pages={698--725},
year={2019},
publisher={Cambridge University Press},
doi={10.1017/jfm.2019.209}
}
@article{patil2022drag,
title={Drag enhancement by the addition of weak waves to a wave-current boundary layer over bumpy walls},
author={Patil, Akshay and Fringer, Oliver},
journal={Journal of Fluid Mechanics},
volume={947},
pages={A3},
year={2022},
publisher={Cambridge University Press},
doi={10.1017/jfm.2022.628}
}
@misc{patil2025carespatialheterogeneitycoral,
title={Should we care about the spatial heterogeneity in coral reefs under unidirectional turbulent flows?},
author={Patil, Akshay and Garc{\'i}a-S{\'a}nchez, Clara},
year={2025},
eprint={2506.03021},
archivePrefix={arXiv},
primaryClass={physics.flu-dyn},
url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03021}
}
@article{patil2025gensdf,
title={{GenSDF}: An {MPI-Fortran} based signed-distance-field generator for computational fluid dynamics applications},
author={Patil, Akshay and Paranjothi, Uma Chandrika Karrothu and Garc{\'i}a-S{\'a}nchez, Clara},
journal={SoftwareX},
volume={30},
pages={102117},
year={2025},
publisher={Elsevier}
}