Specifying run-time parameters in setrun.py

This section explains the parameters needed for the classic single-grid Clawpack code. Additional parameters are needed by extensions of the code. For these, see:

• AMRClaw (adaptive mesh refinement): Specifying AMRClaw parameters in setrun.py
• GeoClaw (geophysical flows): Specifying GeoClaw parameters in setrun.py

Describe setrun in general here!

It may be useful to look at a specific example, e.g. Sample setrun.py module for classic Clawpack.

Run-time parameters

The parameters needed in 1 space dimension (ndim=1) are described. In 2d and 3d there are analogous parameters in y and z required, as mentioned below.

ndim : integer from [1,2,3]

number of space dimensions.

xlower : float

lower limit in the x direction. For 2d or 3d, there are analogous parameters ylower and zlower.

xupper : float

upper limit in the x direction. For 2d or 3d, there are analogous parameters yupper and zupper.

mx : integer

The number of grid cells in the x direction. For 2d or 3d, there are analogous parameters my and mz.

meqn : integer

Number of equations in the system (e.g. meqn=1 for a scalar problem).

maux : integer

Number of auxiliary variables in the aux array (initialized in setaux.f)

mcapa : integer

Index of aux array corresponding to capacity function, if there is one.

t0 : float

Initial time, often t0 = 0.

dt_initial: float

Initial time step to try in first step.

dt_variable: boolean

If True, time steps are adjusted automatically based on the desired Courant number cfl_desired.

If False, fixed time steps of lenght dt_initial are used.

dt_max: float

If dt_variable = True then this is an upper bound on the allowable time step regardless of the Courant number. Useful if there are other reasons to limit the time step (e.g. stiff source terms).

cfl_desired: float

If dt_variable = True then this is the desired Courant number. Time steps will be adjusted based on the maximum wave speed seen in the last time step taken. For a nonlinear problem this may not result in the Courant number being exactly the desired value in the next step, which is where the next attribute comes in...

Usually cfl_desired = 0.9 or less.

cfl_max: float

If dt_variable = True then this is the maximum Courant number that can be allowed. If a time step results in a Courant number that’s greater than cfl_desired but less than or equale to cfl_max, the step is accepted. If the Courant number is greater than cfl_max then the step is rejected and a smaller step is taken. (At this point the maximum wave speed from Riemann solutions is known, so the step can be adjusted to exactly hit the desired value cfl_desired.)

Usually cfl_max = 1.0 is fine.

max_step: int

Maximum number of time steps allowed between output times. This is just to avoid infinite loops and generally a large value is fine.

outstyle : integer

There are three possible ways to specify the output times. This parameter selects the desired manner to specify the times, and affects what other attributes are required.

• outstyle = 1 Requires nout and tfinal, the number of output times to produce up to time tfinal. They will be equally spaced. The time steps will be adjusted to hit these times exactly. (Provided dt_variable = True. Otherwise dt_initial must divide tfinal/nout an integer number of times.)
• outstyle = 2 Requires nout and tout, where tout is a list of nout desired output times.
• outstyle = 3 Requires nout and iout, and the solution is output every iout time steps for a total of nout steps.

To be continued...