YADE - An extensible framework for the interactive simulation of multiscale, multiphase, and multiphysics particulate systems

This seminar presents the key elements of YADE, an extensible open-source framework for dynamic simulations. During the past 19 years, YADE has evolved from “Yet Another Dynamic Engine” to a versatile multiscale and multiphysics solver, counting a large, active, and growing community of users and developers. The computationally intense parts of the source code are written in C++, using flexible object models that allow for easy implementation of new features. The source code is wrapped in Python, equipping the software with an interactive kernel used for rapid and concise scene construction, simulation control, post-processing, and debugging. The project, including documentation and examples, is hosted on https://yade-dem.org , while the source code is freely available on GitLab. Over the last decade, YADE has expanded in terms of capabilities thanks to the contribution of many developers from different fields of expertise, including soil and rock mechanics, chemical engineering, physics, bulk material handling, and mineral processing. The rapid growth of YADE can be attributed to (1) the careful and robust design of the framework core, (2) a continuous integration pipeline with fully embedded thorough tests which are executed upon each merge request, ensuring stable compilation for various operating systems, and (3) user-friendliness, facilitated by the Python interface, detailed documentation, and rigorous user support. This seminar reviews the main features of YADE, highlighting its versatility in terms of applications, its flexibility in terms of code development, as well as recent improvements in terms of computational efficiency.