Framework System Requirements Specification

System Purpose

MOOSE is a tool for solving complex coupled Multiphysics equations using the finite element method. MOOSE uses an object-oriented design to abstract data structure management, parallelism, threading and compiling while providing an easy to use interface targeted at engineers that may not have a lot of software development experience. MOOSE will require extreme scalability and flexibility when compared to other FEM frameworks. For instance, MOOSE needs the ability to run extremely complex material models, or even third-party applications within a parallel simulation without sacrificing parallelism. This capability is in contrast to what is often seen in commercial packages, where custom material models can limit the parallel scalability, forcing serial runs in the most severe cases. When comparing high-end capabilities, many MOOSE competitors target modest-sized clusters with just a few thousand processing cores. MOOSE, however, will be required to routinely executed on much larger clusters with scalability to clusters available in the top 500 systems (top500.org). MOOSE will also be targeted at smaller systems such as high-end laptop computers.

The design goal of MOOSE is to give developers ultimate control over their physical models and applications. Designing new models or solving completely new classes of problems will be accomplished by writing standard C++ source code within the framework's class hierarchy. Scientists and engineers will be free to implement completely new algorithms using pieces of the framework where possible, and extending the framework's capabilities where it makes sense to do so. Commercial applications do not have this capability, and instead opt for either a more rigid parameter system or a limited application-specific metalanguage.

System Scope

MOOSE's scope is to provide a set of interfaces for building FEM simulations. Abstractions to all underlying libraries are provided.

Solving coupled problems where competing physical phenomena impact one and other in a significant nonlinear fashion represents a serious challenge to several solution strategies. Small perturbations in strongly-coupled parameters often have very large adverse effects on convergence behavior. These adverse effects are compounded as additional physics are added to a model. To overcome these challenges, MOOSE employs three distinct yet compatible systems for solving these types of problems.

First, an advanced numerical technique called the JFNK method is employed to solve the most fully-coupled physics in an accurate, consistent way. An example of this would be the effect of temperature on the expansion or contraction of a material. While the JFNK numerical method is very effective at solving fully-coupled equations, it can also be computationally expensive. Plus, not all physical phenomena in a given model are truly coupled to one another. For instance, in a reactor, the speed of the coolant flow may not have any direct effect on the complex chemical reactions taking place inside the fuel rods. We call such models "loosely-coupled". A robust, scalable system must strike the proper balance between the various modeling strategies to avoid performing unnecessary computations or incorrectly predicting behavior in situations such as these.

MOOSE's Multiapp system will allow modelers to group physics into logical categories where MOOSE can solve some groups fully-coupled and others loosely-coupled. The Multiapp system goes even further by also supporting a "tightly-coupled" strategy, which falls somewhere between the "fully-coupled" and "loosely-coupled" approaches. Several sets of physics can then be linked together into logical hierarchies using any one of these coupling strategies, allowing for several potential solution strategies. For instance, a complex nuclear reactor model might consist of several tightly-coupled systems of fully-coupled equations.

Finally, MOOSE's Transfers system ties all of the physics groups contained within the Multiapp system together and allows for full control over the flow of information among the various groups. This capability bridges physical phenomena from several different complementary scales simultaneously. When these three MOOSE systems are combined, myriad coupling combinations are possible. In all cases, the MOOSE framework handles the parallel communication, input, output and execution of the underlying simulation. By handling these computer science tasks, the MOOSE framework keeps modelers focused on doing research.

MOOSE innovates by building advanced simulation capabilities on top of the very best available software technologies in a way that makes them widely accessible for innovative research. MOOSE is equally capable of solving small models on common laptops and the very biggest FEM models ever attempted—all without any major changes to configuration or source code. Since its inception, the MOOSE project has focused on both developer and computational efficiency. Improved developer efficiency is achieved by leveraging existing algorithms and technologies from several leading open-source packages. Additionally, MOOSE uses several complementary parallel technologies (both the distributed-memory message passing paradigm and shared-memory thread-based approaches are used) to lay an efficient computational foundation for development. Using existing open technologies in this manner helps the developers reduce the scope of the project and keeps the size of the MOOSE code base maintainable. This approach provides users with state-of-the-art finite element and solver technology as a basis for the advanced coupling and solution strategies mentioned previously.

MOOSE's developers work openly with other package developers to make sure that cutting-edge technologies are available through MOOSE, providing researchers with competitive research opportunities. MOOSE maintains a set of objects that hide parallel interfaces while exposing advanced spatial and temporal coupling algorithms in the framework. This accessible approach places developmental technology into the hands of scientists and engineers, which can speed the pace of scientific discovery.

System Context

MOOSE is a command-line driven application. This is typical for high-performance software that is designed to run across several nodes of a cluster system. As such, all of the usage of the software is through any standard terminal program generally available on all supported operating systems. Similarly, for the purpose of interacting through the software, there is only a single user, "the user", which interacts with the software through the command-line. MOOSE does not maintain any back-end database or interact with any system daemons. It is an executable, which may be launched from the command line and writes out various result files as it runs.

Figure 1: Usage of MOOSE and MOOSE-based applications.

System Functions

Since MOOSE is a command-line driven application, all functionality provided in the framework is operated through the use of standard UNIX command line flags and the extendable MOOSE input file. The framework is completely extendable so individual design pages should be consulted for specific behaviors of each user-defined object.

User Characteristics

• Framework Developers: These are the core developers of the framework. They will be responsible for following and enforcing the appropriate software development standards. They will be responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining the software.

• Developers: A Scientist or Engineer that utilizes the framework to build their own application. This user will typically have a background in modeling and simulation techniques and/or numerical analysis but may only have a limited skill-set when it comes to object-oriented coding and the C++ language. This is our primary focus group. In many cases these developers will be encouraged to give their code back to the framework maintainers.

• Analysts: These are users that will run the code and perform various analysis on the simulations they perform. These users may interact with developers of the system requesting new features and reporting bugs found and will typically make heavy use of the input file format.

Assumptions and Dependencies

This section outlines any assumptions and/or dependencies of the software.

The software should be designed with the fewest possible constraints. Ideally the software should run on a wide variety of evolving hardware so it should follow well-adopted standards and guidelines. The software should run on any POSIX compliant system. The software will also make use FEM and numerical libraries that run on POSIX systems as well. The main interface for the software will be command line based with no assumptions requiring advanced terminal capabilities such as coloring and line control.

Definitions

• Verification: (1) The process of: evaluating a system or component to determine whether the products of a given development phase satisfy the conditions imposed at the start of that phase. (2) Formal proof of program correctness (e.g., requirements, design, implementation reviews, system tests) (24765:2010(E), 2010).

Acronyms

Functional Requirements

!sqa requirements link=False collections=FUNCTIONAL category=framework

Usability Requirements

!sqa requirements link=False collections=USABILITY category=framework

Performance Requirements

!sqa requirements link=False collections=PERFORMANCE category=framework

System Interfaces

!sqa requirements link=False collections=SYSTEM category=framework

System Operations

System Modes and States

MOOSE applications normally run in normal execution mode when an input file is supplied. However, there are a few other modes that can be triggered with various command line flags as indicated here:

Physical Characteristics

MOOSE is software only with no associated physical media. See System Requirements for a description of the minimum required hardware necessary for running a MOOSE-based application.

Environmental Conditions

Not Applicable

System Security

MOOSE based applications have no requirements or special needs related to system security. The framework is designed to run completely in user-space with no elevated privileges required nor recommended.

Information Management

The core framework in its entirety will be made publicly available on an appropriate repository hosting site. Day-to-day backups and security services will be provided by the hosting service. More information about MOOSE backups of the public repository on INL-hosted services can be found on the following page: GitHub Backups

Polices and Regulations

MOOSE-based applications must comply with all export control restrictions.

System Life Cycle Sustainment

MOOSE-based development follows various agile methods. The system is continuously built and deployed in a piecemeal fashion since objects within the system are more or less independent. Every new object requires a test, which in turn requires an associated requirement and design description. Some MOOSE-based development teams follow the Nuclear Quality Assurance Level 1 (NQA-1) standards.

Packaging, Handling, Shipping and Transportation

No special requirements are needed for packaging or shipping any media containing MOOSE source code. However, some MOOSE-based applications may be export-controlled, in which case all export control restrictions must be adhered to when packaging and shipping media.