Palabos — The Complete Guide: Free Lattice Boltzmann Flow in Complex Geometry
Palabos is an open-source (AGPLv3) library for lattice Boltzmann CFD, developed at the University of Geneva. It targets flows in complicated geometry — porous rock, blood vessels, packed beds and filters — where building a mesh for a classical solver is most of the work.
Palabos
University of Geneva
An open lattice Boltzmann solver for fluid flow, from the University of Geneva.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Porous media — permeability and flow computed directly from a CT scan or image of the structure.
- Biomedical flow — blood vessels, including simulation of blood cells.
- Free surfaces — flow with an air-liquid interface, bubbles and particles.
- Grid refinement — high resolution only where it is needed.
- Parallelism — MPI from a laptop up to a cluster.
What to know
The main interface is C++, with Python and Java interfaces for rapid prototyping. It is a library, not a windowed program: you write code, compile and run. The AGPLv3 licence allows commercial use, but anyone who distributes code built on it, or offers it as a service, must share their code under the same licence.
Related tools
A parallel library using a similar method — OpenLB. For finite-volume CFD — OpenFOAM. To view result fields — ParaView.
OpenLB
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
A lattice Boltzmann framework in C++ for complex flow simulation.
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OpenFOAM
OpenFOAM Foundation
Comprehensive CFD solvers — flow, turbulence, heat transfer and multiphase. Text-file driven, no GUI.
Get it from the vendor
ParaView
Kitware / Sandia / Los Alamos
Large-scale simulation post-processing — slices, streamlines and animation.
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Fiji (ImageJ)
ImageJ / Fiji community
Scientific image processing and analysis — measure cracks, grains, pores and dimensions from photos and micrographs.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
Palabos is an excellent choice for flow in complicated geometry, for anyone willing to write code — free and open source.