Two clear ambitions
code_aster combines the following two ambitions:
- to provide reliable, robust, and high-performance simulation software for engineering studies in a context of quality-assured development and distribution
- to host and capitalize on the numerical mechanics models produced by EDF's R&D department
Constantly developed, maintained, and enriched with new models, code_aster has over a million lines of source code, mostly in Fortran and Python. To meet the quality requirements of the nuclear industry, the code undergoes a rigorous and continuous verification and validation process.
More than 3,500 verification test cases and numerous validation studies in various fields of mechanics are managed in configuration. The test cases, which are run daily, are used for basic validation and serve as a useful educational resource. The code_aster documentation, which is fully accessible on the code's website, comprises more than 23,000 pages, including user manuals, theoretical manuals compiling EDF's expertise in computational mechanics, test case documentation, and tutorials.
Overview of code_aster features
In addition to the standard functions of thermo-mechanical simulation software, code_aster offers a particularly wide range of behavior laws, finite elements, and load types. Its area of excellence lies in non-linear simulations, particularly in the fields of civil engineering, fracture mechanics, and geomaterials.
Free software
Since 2001, code_aster has been distributed as free software (under the GNU GPL license). The software and its source code, as well as test cases and all documentation, are freely available to everyone.
Objectives: to improve the quality and referencing of the code by increasing its use and to provide software support for EDF's R&D partnerships.
After more than 15 years, code_aster has been a global success and has built up a significant community of users through the website forum. It has been particularly recognized by the free software community: Lutèce d'Or for the best free software developed by a large group in 2006, SCOS referencing.
2,500 downloads of each new version of code_aster
From code to platform
Since 2011, code_aster has been embedded with other mechanical solvers in the Salome-Meca mechanical simulation platform. This platform enables mechanical studies to be carried out in an integrated environment based on the generic SALOME platform. It also offers the possibility of capitalizing, beyond the models developed by EDF's R&D department in code_aster, on the know-how and study methodologies in business tools specific to each mechanical discipline.
A federated community
Since 2011, a network has been bringing together free users of code_aster in a professional environment. It now has nearly 70 members and holds biannual meetings to promote exchanges between them around a common interest (sharing the costs of developing a feature, setting up a partnership project, etc.). Benefiting from its richness, performance, and the quality requirements of nuclear engineering, the software is appreciated by technical centers and academic or industrial research units, service companies, and teachers. It is used in a wide variety of industrial fields: geology, manufacturing, civil engineering, biomechanics, etc.
Salome-Meca
Why?
EDF guarantees technical and economic control of its electricity generation facilities, from design to end of life. Safety and availability requirements necessitate supporting decisions regarding commissioning, repair, or replacement with numerical simulation. Analyzing the actual behavior and risks of mechanical and civil engineering structures in operation requires expertise in nonlinear mechanical and thermal modeling. code_aster was developed to address these challenges.
With whom?
The main team is responsible for the coherence and quality (from the architecture to the exploitation) of the code. A development network provides models adapted to different materials and mechanical components found in electrical industry equipment. Led by EDF-R&D, this network contains industrial and university researchers as well as project coordinators. It aims at giving on time the results of the innovations that are essential to evaluate the problems of the system under use and of new projects. The code_aster Users’ Day shows the vitality of the network.
How?
The industrialisation of models, the adaptation of achievements and the qualification take advantage of decades of development. The configuration management tool allows the involved researchers to verify the coherence of new modifications, their conformity with the rules and non-regression policy of the modified code (over 3,000 tests performed in configuration). prior to their integration within the code. The architecture of code_aster (a FORTRAN base associated to object language) depends on a memory/disk image manager, a command “supervisor” and a finite element calculation engine (the algorithms are built independently from the elements formulation).