pystormflow

A Python interface to Stormflow, a CFD solver specialized for actuator line simulations of lifting surfaces with the Stormbird library.

Requirements

⚠️ Rust Toolchain Required

This package is distributed as source only and must be compiled during installation. You must have the Rust toolchain installed before installing this package.

Install Rust: Visit https://rust-lang.org/

Stormflow can run parts of the solver on the GPU through wgpu, which requires up-to-date graphics drivers with support for Vulkan, Metal or DirectX 12.

Installation

Once Rust is installed, install pystormflow with pip:

pip install pystormflow

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/NTNU-IMT/stormbird.git
cd stormbird/interfaces/pystormflow
pip install .

Use Cases

• Running actuator line simulations with Stormflow through Python scripting
• Post-processing of flow fields and sectional forces directly in Python

Implementation Details

The interface is made using PyO3. A simulation is set up from a JSON string, which can be created using Python's built-in json module for dictionaries, or using the stormbird_setup helper package. See the Stormflow README for a description of the solver and its settings.

from pystormflow import Simulation

with open("setup.json") as f:
    simulation = Simulation(f.read())

simulation.do_steps_until_end_time(end_time=10.0, courant_number=0.5)

simulation.export_fields_as_vtk("fields.vtk", binary=True)
result = simulation.get_stormbird_simulation_result()

Development

For a test build using cargo:

cargo build

To build a distributable source package:

maturin sdist