code_saturne is a general-purpose computational fluid dynamics free computer software package. Developed since 1997 at Électricité de France R&D, code_saturne is distributed under the GNU GPL licence. It is based on a co-located finite-volume approach that accepts meshes with any type of cell (tetrahedral, hexahedral, prismatic, pyramidal, polyhedral...) and any type of grid structure (unstructured, block structured, hybrid, conforming or with hanging nodes...).
Its basic capabilities enable the handling of either incompressible or expandable flows with or without heat transfer and turbulence (mixing length, 2-equation models, v2f, Reynolds stress models, Large eddy simulation...). Dedicated modules are available for specific physics such as radiative heat transfer, combustion (gas, coal, heavy fuel oil, ...), magneto-hydro dynamics, compressible flows, two-phase flows (Euler-Lagrange approach with two-way coupling), extensions to specific applications (e.g. for atmospheric environment).
Actual version is 8.0 (2023-06-30).
code saturne install
code_saturne may be installed on a Linux or other Unix-like system by downloading and building it. No system files are changed, so administrator privileges are not required if the code is installed in a user's directory. Packages for code_saturne are also available on Debian and Ubuntu. Alternatively, CAE Linux (latest version ), includes code_saturne pre-installed.
The code also works well in the Windows subsystem for Linux.
Interoperability
code saturne supports multiple mesh formats. The following formats, from open source or commercial tools, are currently supported by Code Saturne:
Supported mesh input formats (source): SIMAIL (NOPO) – (INRIA/Distene) I-DEAS universal MED CGNS EnSight 6 EnSight Gold GAMBIT neutral Gmsh Simcenter STAR-CCM+
Supported post-processing output formats
EnSight Gold
MED
CGNS
Alternative software
Advanced Simulation Library (open source software AGPL) ANSYS CFX (proprietary software) ANSYS Fluent (proprietary software) Basilisk COMSOL Multiphysics FEATool Multiphysics Gerris Flow Solver (GPL) OpenFOAM (GPL) Palabos Flow Solver (AGPL) STAR-CCM+ (proprietary software) SU2 code (LGPL)
See also
SALOME
References
External links
Official English website
Official french website
Code Saturne Installation on Mandriva Linux
Code_Saturne Overview (pdf, 2 pages) Overview of EDF's Open Source initiative (pdf, 2 pages) code-saturne.blogspot.com : Independent user's Blog about SALOME, Code_Saturne, ParaView and Numerical Modelling CAE Linux : LiveDVD with Code_Saturne, Code_Aster and the Salomé platform Website at the University of Manchester