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Commit 7f42142f authored by Timo Koch's avatar Timo Koch
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[changelog] Add comment on main file, grid geometry, caching concept

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......@@ -18,6 +18,26 @@ Differences Between DuMuX 2.12 and DuMuX 3.0
* __IMPROVEMENTS and ENHANCEMENTS:__
- Support for grid managers dune-subgrid (a meta grid selecting only certain elements from a host grid)
and dune-spgrid (a structured parallel grid manager, supporting periodic boundaries)
- __New style main files:__ 3.0 comes which a major overhaul of how the sequence of simulation steps is specified.
Until 2.12 there was the start.hh header including the free function `start` that contained a predefined sequence of
steps. Customization of the sequence was possible by many hooks implemented in classes used in this sequence. This
made it hard to follow the course of the program and hard to implement customization at points where this was not previously envisioned.
In contrast, in the new approach the sequence of simulation steps was linearized, meaning that each step is visible
in the program's main file. In the new main files, one can clearly see the io, initialization, assembly, solving, update, time loop, etc.,
of the program. Many parts of the simulation that were previously mandatory, i.e. simulations in 2.12 always contained a time loop,
are now optional (instationary simulations just don't need a time loop). The new style main files make it easier two follow the course
of the program, easier to customize, and offer more flexibility concerning the customization of steps and components of a simulation.
All tests and examples in the dumux repository have been adapted to the new style main files.
- __The grid geometry concept:__ In version 3.0, discretization methods use grid geometries which are wrapper or adapters around a `Dune::GridView`,
providing data structures and interfaces necessary to implement these discretization methods easily. In particular, the
abstraction of sub-control-volumes (scv) and sub-control-volume-faces (scvf) are now separate classes and the grid geometry provides means to iterate
over all scvs and scvfs of an element, using range-based-for loops.
- __The caching concept:__ Version 3.0 introduces a caching concept for the new grid geometry, the volume variables and the flux variables.
There are classes with a `Grid` prefix, that store data for the current grid view, and classes with the `Element` prefix that store data locally
for an element or element stencil. Depending on the caching concept used, data will be either stored completely in the `Grid` objects
(e.g. `GridGeometry`) and the `Element` object (e.g. `ElementGeometry`) are mere accessor objects, or, data will be partly only cached locally.
The local caching uses less memory but might result in a more runtime, the grid caching is memory intensive
but can provide a significant run-time speedup. Choose whatever concept fits your available resources.
* __IMMEDIATE INTERFACE CHANGES not allowing/requiring a deprecation period:__
- The `GridCreator` has been replaced by the `GridManager`, which no longer uses a singleton for the grid object.
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