Features

  • Constant or variable material properties

  • Choose to return compressed .npz NumPy arrays of temperature and cooling rates through time and radius

  • Plot temperature or cooling rate heatmaps

  • Return timing of core solidification, and depth and timing of meteorite formation

  • Return a parameter .json file with details of input parameters and results

Installation

This software relies on python (version 3.6 and up) and various other python packages. Examples are distributed as Jupyter notebooks, which need Jupyter and Matplotlib to run. The software and its dependencies are best installed in a virtual environment of your choice. Installation and management of all these dependencies in an isolated conda environment can be done by running:

conda create -n=pytesimal python=3.8 jupyter
conda activate pytesimal
pip install pytesimal

Installation for development

The package can be downloaded and installed directly from Github for the most recent version. The software and its dependencies are best installed in a virtual environment of your choice. Download of the software and creation of an isolated conda environment can be done by running:

git clone https://github.com/murphyqm/pytesimal.git
cd pytesimal
conda create -n=pytesimal python=3.8 jupyter
conda activate pytesimal
pip install -e .

The -e flag installs the package in editable mode so that any changes to modules can be carried through. Examples can be downloaded from the gallery here.

Installation in Google Colab

Pytesimal can also be installed and used in Google’s hosted Jupyter notebook service, Colaboratory. In a new notebook, install the package:

!pip install pytesimal

You can also upload one of our examples and run it, after adding a cell with the installation command above to the start of the notebook.

Quick Start

https://mybinder.org/badge_logo.svg

To run a case with parameters loaded from file:

import pytesimal.load_plot_save
import pytesimal.quick_workflow

Define a filepath and filename for the parameter file:

folderpath = 'path/to/the/example/'
filename = 'example_parameters'
filepath = f'{folderpath}{filename}.txt'

Save a default parameters file to the filepath:

pytesimal.load_plot_save.make_default_param_file(filepath)

You can open this json file in a text editor and change the default values. Once you’ve edited and saved it, use it as an input file for a model run:

pytesimal.quick_workflow.workflow(filename, folderpath)

Let your planetesimal evolve! This will take a minute or so to run. Once it has done so, you can load the results (from the folder you specified in the parameters file):

filepath = 'results_folder/example_parameters_results.npz'
(temperatures,
 coretemp,
 dT_by_dt,
 dT_by_dt_core) = pytesimal.load_plot_save.read_datafile(filepath)

Then you can plot heatmaps of the temperatures and cooling rates within the planetesimal:

# Specify a figure width and height:
fig_w = 6
fig_h = 9

pytesimal.load_plot_save.two_in_one(
fig_w,
fig_h,
temperatures,
coretemp,
dT_by_dt,
dT_by_dt_core)

See the Jupyter notebooks hosted on Binder for live working examples, or download the example scripts provided.

Parameter Files

The pytesimal.load_plot_save module contains a number of functions to help you build, load and save parameter files. These files allow you to set and record the values of different variables, making reproducible research easier. This section gives an overview of the different inputs and how to use these functions, while documentation for each of the individual functions is available in the API documentation section.

The make_default_param_file() function quickly generates a json format file loaded with a set of default variable values (that recreate the constant properties result from Murphy Quinlan et al., 2021):

folder = 'path/to/folder'
filename = 'example_param_file.txt'
filepath=f'{folder}/{filename}'

check_folder_exists(folder)
make_default_param_file(filepath=filepath)

The check_folder_exists() function does what it says on the tin, then will create the folder if one does not exist. The filepath needs to include the absolute path to the folder, as wel as the filename including .txt file extension. This parameters file in json format can then be opened, edited, renamed or moved, and loaded in to set parameter values for a model run.

The file content looks like a Python dictionary:

{
"run_ID": "example_default",
"folder": "example_default",
"timestep": 100000000000.0,
"r_planet": 250000.0,
"core_size_factor": 0.5,
"reg_fraction": 0.032,
"max_time": 400,
"temp_core_melting": 1200.0,
"mantle_heat_cap_value": 819.0,
"mantle_density_value": 3341.0,
"mantle_conductivity_value": 3.0,
"core_cp": 850.0,
"core_density": 7800.0,
"temp_init": 1600.0,
"temp_surface": 250.0,
"core_temp_init": 1600.0,
"core_latent_heat": 270000.0,
"kappa_reg": 5e-08,
"dr": 1000.0,
"cond_constant": "y",
"density_constant": "y",
"heat_cap_constant": "y"
}

A description of each of these parameters is given in the docstring of save_params_and_results, but we’ll look at a few of them here.

  • run_ID: this is a string identifier for your model run, for your reference (set it to something short and descriptive)

  • folder: this should be the absolute path to the folder where you want the results to be saved (if you are saving results)

  • timestep, dr and material properties: make sure you check that your combination of discretisation scheme and material properties is stable (see section below on stability); tiemstep is in s and dr is in m.

  • max_time: in Myr, how long the model will run for.

  • cond_constant, density_constant, heat_cap_constant: string values that define whether to use constant or temperature-dependent material properties. Feed these parameters in as arguments when instantiating the mantle properties.

Once you have edited/copied/renamed/moved this file as you wish, it can be loaded in using the following function call:

load_params_from_file(filepath)

Where filepath again must be the absolute path to the file, including the filename with .txt extension.

The save_params_and_results function should be called after you have run your model, to record the parameters used. This output parameter file is formatted so that it can be read as an input parameter file too, allowing model runs to be reproduced and rerun exactly. It adds a number of fields to the original input parameter file, in order to save results:

  • "core_begins_to_freeze": time_core_frozen / myr - this takes the modelled start time of the period of core crystallisation (in seconds) and converts it to millions of years

  • "core finishes freezing": fully_frozen / myr - saves the modelled end time of the period of core crystallisation and converts from seconds to millions of years

  • meteorite_results - optional; this should be formatted as a dictionary, listing any timing or depth data that should be saved. Extra notes can also be added here.

  • latent_list_len - optional; len(latent) should be passed in as an argument to record the length of the latent heat list (to later calculate core crystallisation timing). This is also an optional argument for save_result_arrays.

Important: note that depending on the analysis carried out, you may not yet have results for all of the above. The parameter file can still be saved by substituting an obvious placeholder string, 0, or None for one of the above values. Make note of this within the meteorite_results or run_ID fields.

Numerical Stability

You can check whether your choice of diffusivity, timestep and radial discretisation meet Von Neumann stability criteria using the functions provided in the pytesimal.numerical_methods module.

Thermal diffusivity can be calculated from the conductivity, heat capacity and density using calculate_diffusivity, and then tested using the check_stability function. You should use the maximum diffusivity of your system to find the most restrictive criteria, and use this to inform your choice of timestep.

Note that other instabilities may arise when defining custom functions for thermal properties; please regularly plot the output data to check for unexpected behaviour.

Contribute

If you are having issues, please let us know. You can email us at eememq@leeds.ac.uk

The project is licensed under the MIT license.

Support

If you are having issues, please let us know. You can email us at eememq@leeds.ac.uk

License

The project is licensed under the MIT license.