Quick start

Installation of python package for developers (with pixi)

This requires installing pixi. If it is not available on your machine, follow Pixi Installation Once installed, pixi does not require the conda environment creation and pip install gymnastics, and can be used as

git clone https://github.com/NREL/BioReactorDesign.git
cd BioReactorDesign
pixi shell

This will activate an environment for you (equivalent to pip install -e .) Alternatively to the pixi shell, in any directory of BiRD, you can use pixi run python myscript.py instead of python myscript.py

Installation of python package for users

conda create -c conda-forge --name bird python=3.14 paraview
conda activate bird
pip install nlr-bird

Installation of BiRD OpenFOAM solver (for developers and users)

  1. Activate your OpenFOAM-9 environment

source <OpenFOAM-9 installation directory>/etc/<your-shell>rc

  1. Compile the solver

cd OFsolvers/birdmultiphaseEulerFoam/
./Allwmake

The same steps are done in .github/workflows/ci.yml (under Test-OF - Compile solver) which can be used as a reference. However, note that .github/workflows/ci.yml compiles the solver in debug mode which is not suitable for production.

We provide a new drag model Grace, a new interfacial composition model Higbie and various other models which magnitude can be controlled via an efficiency factor (see this paper for why efficiency factors are useful).

Run an example

  1. Follow the steps to install the python package (see either the Installation section for developers or the Installation section for users)

  2. Follow the steps to install the BiRD OpenFOAM solver (see the Installation section for the solver)

  3. Check that you can run any of the tutorial cases, for example

cd tutorial_cases/bubble_column_20L
bash run.sh

If you run with pixi

cd tutorial_cases/bubble_column_20L
bash run_pixi.sh