What can I do with MED?

Simulation studies require the manipulation of meshes and fields for data pre-processing, in calculation schemes (including chaining and coupling of codes), or even for results post-processing.

Corresponding computer codes can be viewed as software components accessing input meshes and fields (with specific constraints) along with parameters (datasets), and producing output meshes and fields. Each code presents by construction the specificities of its discipline.

The MED module aims at pooling operations on those items, facilitating their use by various codes involved in a simulation process. This includes making codes communicate while preserving as much as possible the integrity of their content.

To fulfill its objective, the MED module includes:

• Handling meshes and fields to satisfy code input requirements.
• Extraction of field information to post-process computation results of a code.
• Projections and serialization to exchange meshes and fields between codes.

In addition, the MED module offers several interfacing levels; users can thus benefit from an interaction level adapted to their codes.

The main services offered by MEDCoupling are:

• Manipulation of fields and their support mesh, serialized with the MED format.
• Operations on scalars, vectors, and second order tensors.
• 1D/2D/3D interpolation on nodes, cells, Gauss points and nodes by element.

MEDCoupling thus considers:

• the data dimension.
• the physical nature of the information stored in a field, as well as conservation laws.
• the field profiles and the mesh connectivity.