preCICE v2: A sustainable and user-friendly coupling library

Area of Science:

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Multi-physics simulations
• Scientific computing

Background:

• Partitioned simulations require robust coupling libraries.
• preCICE (Precision Coupling) is an open-source library for multi-physics simulations.
• The software has undergone significant development over the past five years.

Purpose of the Study:

• Summarize the development of preCICE over the last five years.
• Detail the software's evolution from a prototype to a sustainable project.
• Provide an overview of the current preCICE ecosystem.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of performance and accuracy for different data mapping techniques.
• Description of ready-to-use integrations with external simulation software.
• Implementation of comprehensive testing and continuous integration strategies.

Main Results:

• preCICE has transformed into a sustainable, user-friendly software with a growing community.
• Over 100 research groups utilize preCICE for their simulations.
• The library offers sophisticated numerical coupling and scalability on large compute clusters.

Conclusions:

• preCICE is a mature and widely adopted open-source coupling library.
• The project's focus on community, usability, and robust development has been successful.
• The library facilitates complex multi-physics simulations across various research domains.