CURRENT RELEASE: 4.0 (Nov 2012) ********************************************************** * CHANGES from 3.1.1 ********************************************************** PLUTO 4.0 contains several major improvements over previous releases: 1. Structural Changes * The naming syntax of the code has been slightly changed in order to make it more standard and to avoid confusion between MACROS and Functions. While macro names conserve the traditional "ALL_UPPER_CASE" syntax, function names have been replaced by using "CamelCase" letter, where compound words are joined without spaces or underscore and have initial capital letter, e.g. MAKE_GEOMETRY() –> MakeGeometry(). See section 0.6 of the User's Guide. * Doxygen is now used as standard documentation system for PLUTO and, although far from being complete, it is meant to replace the old Developer's guide. Please refer to Doc/Doxygen/html/index.hml. * ArrayLib is no longer necessary and has been replaced by a compact, largely debugged subset of functions directly incorporated into the code. Parallel executables are compiled by choosing an appropriate makefile from the Config/ directory. Several bugs have been fixed in porting PLUTO to several thousand processor architectures. * PLUTO 4 is now compatible with Chombo 3.1 for AMR applications. * Staggered arrays now contain one more point in the direction of staggering and span from -1...NX_TOT-1 in the staggered dir. * Limiter names have been changed to upper case: + minmod_lim –> MINMOD_LIM + vanleer_lin –> VANLEER_LIM * Makefile build has changed to a more flexible structure. 2. I/O Changes * VTK files are now correctly written using node-centered rather than cell-centered coordinates. This will produce more accurate visualization with VisIt or Paraview. * Asynchrounous binary I/O of single-precision files. * HDF5 output format is now available also with the static grid version of the code using single- or double-precision datafiles (*.dbl.h5, *flt.h5). Double precision HDF5 can also be used for restart. * Output interval may be given in wallclock time. 3. AMR * RK2 time-stepping is now supported with Chombo; * Bug fix: support for entropy switch; * Bug fix: Internal boundary + AMR. 4. (Major) Physics Addition * New FARGO-MHD module is available for Cartesian/polar and spherical geometries and it is completely parallel in all 3 directions. * New INCLUDE_ROTATION flag allows to solve the HD/MHD equations in a rotating frame of reference using a fully conservative formulation. * Isothermal EoS has been added to the HD module. The implementation has been further extended to support a spatially-varying sound speed. * ShearingBox module extended to adiabatic EoS and fully parallel in all 3 directions. * Body forces have been re-implemented using simpler functions that prescribe either the vector components or the gravitational potential. * Entropy Switch for RHD/RMHD modules 5. Extras * A new more flexible algorithm to assign initial conditions by interpolating (external) input data files is available. * Parallel decomposition may be used-defined using the -dec n1 [n2] [n3] command line argument. * Improved handling of "internal boundary" regions inside the computational domain. 6. Visualization * New pyPLUTO visualization tool for quick visualization of PLUTO binary files. * IDL: improved getT() function to compute the temperature; * IDL: new ptools() functions for computing averages in 3D datasets; * IDL: improved pload procedure to read also HDF5 files from thestatic grid version of the code. * GNUPLOT: support for reading single or multiple data files * VisIt/Paraview: can now read HDF5 Chombo data files and .h5 PLUTO new format files. ********************************************************** * CHANGES from 3.1.0 ********************************************************** Version 3.1.1 contains some new improvements and a number of minor bug fixes. Here's a list of the most important changes: - time step computation has been revised carefully (in a genuine multi-D way) for UNSPLIT Runge-Kutta schemes and when including parabolic terms (both explicit and Super Time Stepping). The resulting formulation yields time steps that are larger than before for a given CFL number. See the UserGuide for a more technical explanation. This should also fix some unstable behavior seen with STS at large CFL numbers. - dissipative processes can now be incorporated, at the explicit level, with Chombo-AMR; - FARGO scheme has been extended to spherical geometry - introduced the -no-write runtime switch for Chombo; - Bug fix: Viscosity/Thermal Conduction (HD module) - Bug fix: multiple calling of diffusion terms with STS should now work properly. ********************************************************** * CHANGES from 3.0.1 ********************************************************** Version 3.1.0 provides several improvements/optimizations together with a few bug fixes. Briefly: - Improved AMR support and compatibility with the latest Chombo release (Chombo 3.0): * added support for 1D AMR (replacing the obsolete amr-1D module); * HDF5 files now contains primitive variables (instead of conservative ones); * improved GLM-MHD / CTU integration; * explicit integration of parabolic terms (conduction, viscosity, resisistivity); * improved reading and visualization routines with IDL (see pload, hdf5load and oplotbox); - ArrayLib should be recompiled in order to allow large number of processors (> 16,000); - introduced the -xres command flag; - introduced the x1jet, x2jet, x3jet for jet propagating in any direction and dimension (replacing the old -jet switch); - introduced the new SHEARINGBOX module; - introduced the new FINITE_DIFFERENCE module; - improved IDL DISPLAY routine with lft,rgt, bot and top; - improved IDL PLOAD routine for reading large datasets; - FLUX_CT has been changed to "CONSTRAINED_TRANSPORT". This is automatically corrected by running python setup.py. - improved GLM_MHD/CTU and finite difference (FD) implementation. - Cooling: cooling function names have been changed from RAYMOND, NEQ to SNEq, MINEq; - VECTOR potential: CT_VEC_POT_INIT changed into USE_VECTOR_POTENTIAL and also generalized to cell-centered MHD; - time step computation has been modified by replacing min(dx)/max(lambda) --> min(dx/lambda). This yields larger time step on curvilinear grids; - Improved Gnuplot visualization capabilities; - introduced new reconstruction schemes (LimO3 and WENO3) in the finite volume formulation (FV); - Bug fixes and optimizations in the Thermal Conduction module; - Viscosity is now compatible with STS integration. - improved portability when restarting from .dbl files. WARNING: restarting from files written with previous versions of PLUTO will no longer work due to a change in the size of the INPUT and RUNTIME structures. ********************************************************** * CHANGES from 3.0 ********************************************************** Version 3.01 contains a number of minor improvements and a few bug fixes: - 1-D AMR extended to cylindrical and spherical coordinates; - Entropy switch is available again for the MHD module; - improved efficiency and accuracy of the GLM-MHD module; - improved characteristic interpolation; - CTU integrator is less memory consuming; - Improved pload function (for IDL users) for large data sets. - Bug fix in 3-D polar coordinates: the centrifugal term is now correctly included. - Bug fix in 3-D Cartesian/MHD/FLUX_CT + UCT_CONTACT: the dEy_dxm derivative was added to Ez instead of Ey. - Bug fix in time step computation for viscous term: a division by density was missing. - Bug fix in the vector potential in 2D Cylindrical coordinates: the \phi component of the EMF must flip sign before updating A_\phi. ********************************************************** * CHANGES from 2.07.7 * ********************************************************** It contains major changes and several improvements with respect to previous 2.xx.x versions. See also the Quickstart chapter in the userguide.pdf: - 2 and 3D adaptive mesh refinement via the Chombo library, please consult PLUTO/Doc/userguide.pdf, Chapt 7. - New syntax for ANALYSIS, USERDEF_BOUNDARY, GRAVITY; - New syntax for pluto.ini; - New syntax for gravity and/or body forces; - Completely redesigned I/O interface with new output formats (dbl/flt/vtk/png/ppm/tab); - output is the same for both parallel/serial mode; - New ArrayLib (please recompile !!!!); - thermal conduction module; - viscosity module; - computations are promoted to double precision (always); - new cooling modules; - possibility to assign initial conditions from external files; - new Upwind Constrained transport for MHD / RMHD; - hyperbolic/parabolic divergence cleaning for MHD and RMHD; - improved Super-Time-Stepping module; - advanced Non-Equilibrium Cooling function; - new command line arguments; - several Bug fixes; - simpler and more efficient IDL routines;