The Alamo multiphysics solver for phase field simulations with strong-form mechanics and block structured adaptive mesh refinement
Brandon Runnels, Vinamra Agrawal, Maycon Meier
TL;DR
The paper addresses the need for scalable, robust phase-field simulations with strong-form mechanics integrated into block-structured AMR. It introduces Alamo, a BSAMR-based solver on AMReX featuring a matrix-free, strong-form mechanical solver and a modular MIPI framework that couples phase-field with heat and other physics. It describes infrastructure for automatic parameter documentation, regression testing, and guaranteed reproducibility to ensure production-quality, maintainable code. The work enables complex multiphysics PF modeling—from solid-propellant deflagration to fracture and microstructure evolution—at scale, while bridging rapid prototyping and production-grade software.
Abstract
Alamo is a high-performance scientific code that uses block-structured adaptive mesh refinement to solve such problems as: the ignition and burn of solid rocket propellant, plasticity, damage and fracture in materials undergoing loading, and the interaction of compressible flow with eroding solid materials. Alamo is powered by AMReX, and provides a set of unique methods, models, and algorithms that enable it to solve solid-mechanics problems (coupled to other physical behavior such as fluid flow or thermal diffusion) using the power of block-structured adaptive mesh refinement.