DUNE — The Complete Guide: A Free Modular Framework for Finite Elements, Porous Media and CFD
DUNE is a modular open-source framework for solving partial differential equations on grids of any kind. The dune-fem module adds finite elements and finite volumes, and is also available from Python via pip. The project is run by universities in Germany and has a long-standing community.
DUNE / dune-fem
DUNE project (TU Dresden, Heidelberg University and others)
A modular framework for grid-based numerical methods with a finite-element module, for porous-media flow, CFD and biomechanics.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- A uniform grid interface — the same code works on structured, unstructured and adaptive grids.
- Porous-media flow — groundwater, contaminant transport and reservoir storage.
- CFD and biomechanics — research applications in flow and mechanics.
- Python — define the problem in mathematical language from Python.
- Performance — parallel computing for large problems.
Who it suits
Researchers and engineers in water, environment and flow who need a flexible solver. DUNE runs on Linux and macOS, and on Windows through WSL. The licence is free for any use, and optional paid commercial support is available.
Related tools
For the standard groundwater model — MODFLOW 6. For automated formulation in Python — FEniCS. For viewing the results — ParaView.
MODFLOW 6
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
The world standard for groundwater flow and solute transport modelling, from the USGS.
Get it from the vendor
FEniCS
FEniCS Project
Solve partial differential equations by writing the variational form directly.
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ParaView
Kitware / Sandia / Los Alamos
Large-scale simulation post-processing — slices, streamlines and animation.
Get it from the vendorFiredrake
Imperial College London and contributors
A Python system for automated finite-element solution of equations: you write the mathematics and the code is generated for you.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
DUNE is a powerful, flexible framework for flow and porous-media problems, for anyone willing to invest in learning it.