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OpenGeoSys: an open-source initiative for numerical simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical/chemical (THM/C) processes in porous media

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Abstract

In this paper we describe the OpenGeoSys (OGS) project, which is a scientific open-source initiative for numerical simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes in porous media. The basic concept is to provide a flexible numerical framework (using primarily the Finite Element Method (FEM)) for solving multifield problems in porous and fractured media for applications in geoscience and hydrology. To this purpose OGS is based on an object-oriented FEM concept including a broad spectrum of interfaces for pre- and postprocessing. The OGS idea has been in development since the mid-eighties. We provide a short historical note about the continuous process of concept and software development having evolved through Fortran, C, and C++ implementations. The idea behind OGS is to provide an open platform to the community, outfitted with professional software-engineering tools such as platform-independent compiling and automated benchmarking. A comprehensive benchmarking book has been prepared for publication. Benchmarking has been proven to be a valuable tool for cooperation between different developer teams, for example, for code comparison and validation purposes (DEVOVALEX and CO2 BENCH projects). On one hand, object-orientation (OO) provides a suitable framework for distributed code development; however, the parallelization of OO codes still lacks efficiency. High-performance-computing efficiency of OO codes is subject to future research.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the support of the OpenGeoSys project by following institutions: Academy of Sciences (former GDR), BGR Hannover, University of Hannover, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Federal Ministry of Education and Science (BMBF), University of Tübingen, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ), Technische Universität Dresden. The authors are very grateful to Alissa Hafele for language editing this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ/TU Dresden, Leipzig, Germany

    O. Kolditz

  2. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, Leipzig, Germany

    L. Bilke, J. O. Delfs, T. Fischer, U. J. Görke, T. Kalbacher, F. Radu, K. Rink, H. B. Shao, Y. Y. Sun, A. K. Singh, J. Taron, W. Wang, N. Watanabe & B. Zehner

  3. University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    S. Bauer

  4. TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    N. Böttcher & M. Walther

  5. Paul-Scherrer-Institute, Villigen, Switzerland

    G. Kosakowski

  6. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    C. I. McDermott

  7. Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM), Daejeon, Korea

    C. H. Park

  8. Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Hannover, Germany

    H. Shao & W. Xu

  9. Beijing Hydrological Center, Beijing, China

    F. Sun

  10. Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China

    Y. Wu

  11. Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS), Braunschweig, Germany

    M. Xie

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  1. O. Kolditz
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  2. S. Bauer
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  3. L. Bilke
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  4. N. Böttcher
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  5. J. O. Delfs
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  6. T. Fischer
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  7. U. J. Görke
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  8. T. Kalbacher
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  9. G. Kosakowski
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  10. C. I. McDermott
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  11. C. H. Park
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  12. F. Radu
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  13. K. Rink
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  14. H. Shao
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  15. H. B. Shao
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  16. F. Sun
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  17. Y. Y. Sun
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  18. A. K. Singh
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  19. J. Taron
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  20. M. Walther
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  21. W. Wang
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  22. N. Watanabe
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  23. Y. Wu
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  24. M. Xie
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  25. W. Xu
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  26. B. Zehner
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Correspondence to O. Kolditz.

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Kolditz, O., Bauer, S., Bilke, L. et al. OpenGeoSys: an open-source initiative for numerical simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical/chemical (THM/C) processes in porous media. Environ Earth Sci 67, 589–599 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-012-1546-x

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