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| Nektar++ | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nektar++ |
| Developer | University of Warwick; Imperial College London; University of Oxford; Indian Institute of Science; Sandia National Laboratories |
| Released | 2006 |
| Latest release | 5.x |
| Programming language | C++ |
| Operating system | Linux; macOS; Windows (via WSL) |
| License | BSD 3-clause |
Nektar++ is an open-source spectral/hp element framework for the solution of partial differential equations in computational fluid dynamics and related fields. It originated from collaborative research groups at University of Warwick, Imperial College London, and University of Oxford and has been used in projects involving Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The software emphasizes high-order discretisation, scalable solvers, and support for complex geometries used in studies connected to European Union research programmes and national grant-funded initiatives such as those from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Nektar++ provides a modular toolkit designed for high-order finite element and spectral element methods, supporting compressible and incompressible formulations employed in simulations aligned with modelling needs of NASA, CERN, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and industrial partners like Rolls-Royce and Siemens. The codebase targets problems in aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, and multiphysics analyses often commissioned by organisations such as European Space Agency, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Argonne National Laboratory. Research groups at institutions including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and California Institute of Technology have referenced Nektar++ for benchmarking high-order algorithms.
Development of Nektar++ began in the mid-2000s emerging from collaborations between University of Warwick and Imperial College London groups with funding from bodies like the EPSRC and the European Research Council. Key contributors have included researchers affiliated with University of Manchester, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, and University of Glasgow. Over time the project integrated work from international teams at Indian Institute of Science, National University of Singapore, and Tsinghua University. The project’s roadmap interacted with initiatives at OpenFOAM Foundation and influenced standards adopted by consortia such as UK Research and Innovation. Releases incorporated advances presented at conferences like the International Conference on Spectral and High-Order Methods, ICCS, and SC Conference.
Nektar++ is implemented in C++ with a modular library architecture that separates mesh handling, basis definitions, and solver kernels—design choices discussed in literature from groups at Princeton University, ETH Zurich, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The framework supports tensor-product bases, modal and nodal expansions used in studies coauthored by researchers at University of Toronto and University of California, Berkeley. Parallelism leverages MPI patterns familiar to developers from National Center for Atmospheric Research and integrates linear algebra backends akin to those used by Trilinos and PETSc contributors. Interoperability with mesh formats produced by Gmsh, ICEM CFD, and MeshLab is provided, reflecting common practice in projects at FOM Institute and Delft University of Technology.
The code implements spectral/hp element methods including continuous Galerkin, discontinuous Galerkin, and hybrid methods employed in research at University of Michigan, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Time-integration schemes include explicit Runge–Kutta families and implicit-explicit methods used in collaborations with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Stabilisation and dealiasing strategies were developed in conjunction with theoretical advances by groups at University of Pennsylvania and Brown University. Physics modules cover Navier–Stokes, Euler, advection–diffusion, and acoustic perturbation equations, paralleling implementations reported by teams at Imperial College London and University of Southampton.
Nektar++ has been applied to aeroacoustic prediction for rotorcraft and jet noise projects linked to NASA Glenn Research Center and industrial studies at Airbus and Boeing. It has been used for transitional flow and laminar-to-turbulent studies in research involving Pratt & Whitney and for cardiovascular flow simulations in collaborations with Johns Hopkins University and Mayo Clinic. Environmental flow modelling and pollutant transport studies citing Nektar++ include projects with Met Office and Environment Agency (England and Wales). Multiphysics coupling examples reference integrations with solvers developed at CEA (France), Fraunhofer Society, and Max Planck Society labs.
Performance tuning has targeted cache-efficient operator evaluation and sum-factorisation optimisations influenced by work at University of Stuttgart and RWTH Aachen University. Scalability studies have been reported on national supercomputers operated by ARCHER, HPC Wales, and ARCHER2 with comparisons to codes from Numerical Algorithms Group collaborations. Validation efforts have compared Nektar++ results against canonical benchmarks such as the Taylor–Green vortex, lid-driven cavity, and aerofoil test cases used by teams at Princeton University, MIT, and Delft University of Technology, as well as experimental datasets from ONERA and KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Nektar++ is distributed under the BSD 3-clause license and maintained by an open community including contributors from University of Oxford, Imperial College London, University of Warwick, Indian Institute of Science, and national laboratories such as Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory. The project participates in workshops and training schools organised with partners including SIAM, IACM, and the Royal Society and is archived in repositories used by GitHub-hosted scientific projects. Community governance reflects collaborative models similar to those at OpenFOAM Foundation and academic consortia like CSE community.
Category:Numerical analysis software