Phynexis Overview
Phynexis Overview
Phynexis is a high-performance C++ particle engine for computational mechanics of granular and particulate materials. It unifies discrete element method (DEM) simulation, CFD-DEM fluid-particle coupling, and machine-learning acceleration under a single framework, scaling from desktop workstations to HPC clusters.
Core Modules
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| NetDEM | Discrete element solver with sphere, GJK, and signed-distance-field (SDF) contact algorithms for arbitrary particle shapes. Supports hybrid OpenMP/MPI parallelism. |
| CFDDEM | Coupled CFD-DEM solvers (hybridCFDdem, interIBdem, semiResolvedCFDdem) for fluid-particle interaction, built on OpenFOAM. |
| Peridigm | Peridynamics-based particle breakage analysis with level-set domain splitting for fragment reconstruction. |
| FEM | Finite element module for deformable particles and membranes with neo-Hookean constitutive models. |
| ML Interface | PyTorch integration for neural-network-based shape representation (NetSDF, NetSPF) and ANN contact solvers with GPU acceleration. |
The table above is capability-oriented. Import paths in Python follow phynexis.<submodule> names (netdem, cfddem, netfem, …)—see the Python API overview for the authoritative submodule list and coverage on this site.
Supported Particle Shapes
Phynexis supports a comprehensive set of particle geometric representations:
- Analytical: sphere, ellipsoid, cylinder, plane, triangle
- Parametric: poly-super-ellipsoid, poly-super-quadrics, spherical harmonics
- Mesh-based: triangular mesh (STL/OFF), level set
- Neural: NetSDF, NetSPF (learned implicit representations)
Site layout
Docs (header) opens the manual home. Use the sidebar for full navigation; Installation is the usual next step for setup.
Using Phynexis — After installation: Basic usage, visualization, CFD–DEM coupling, restart and checkpoint, and the Python API (also under API → Python in the header).
Extending Phynexis — Architecture and code design, Pybind11 binding conventions, theory background, particle models and homogenization in the sidebar, plus HPC and containers.
C++ API reference
The C++ API is documented with Doxygen. Use API → C++ (Doxygen) in the site header.