Porous Flow System Requirements Specification
This template follows INL template TEM-135, "IT System Requirements Specification".
This document serves as an addendum to Framework System Requirements Specification and captures information for SRS specific to the Porous Flow module.
!sqa dependencies suffix=srs category=porous_flow
Introduction
System Purpose
The purpose of the MOOSE Porous Flow module is to provide functionality to support simulations for fluid and heat flow in porous media. Typical usage examples include groundwater flow, geothermal modeling, geological storage of , and long-term mineralization due to geochemical reactions. The Porous Flow module can be easily coupled with other physics modules in MOOSE.
System Scope
By simply adding pieces of physics together in an input file, the Porous Flow module enables the user to model problems with any combination of fluid, heat, geomechanics and geochemistry.
System Overview
System Context
The Porous Flow module is command-line driven. Like MOOSE, this is typical for a high-performance software that is designed to run across several nodes of a cluster system. As such, all usage of the software is through any standard terminal program generally available on all supported operating systems. Similarly, for the purpose of interacting through the software, there is only a single user, "the user", which interacts with the software through the command-line. The Porous Flow module does not maintain any back-end database or interact with any system daemons. It is an executable, which may be launched from the command line and writes out various result files as it runs.
Figure 1: Usage of the Porous Flow module and other MOOSE-based applications.
System Functions
Since the Porous Flow module is a command-line driven application, all functionality provided in the software is operated through the use of standard UNIX command line flags and the extendable MOOSE input file. The Porous Flow module is completely extendable so individual design pages should be consulted for specific behaviors of each user-defined object.
User Characteristics
Like MOOSE, there are three kinds of users working on the Porous Flow module:
Porous Flow module Developers: These are the core developers of the Porous Flow module. They are responsible for following and enforcing the software development standards of the module, as well as designing, implementing, and maintaining the software.
Developers: A scientist or engineer that uses the Porous Flow module alongside MOOSE to build their own application. This user will typically have a background in modeling or simulation techniques (and perhaps numerical analysis) but may only have a limited skillset when it comes to code development using the C++ language. This is the primary focus group of the module. In many cases, these developers will be encouraged to contribute module-appropriate code back to the Porous Flow module, or to MOOSE itself.
Analysts: These are users that will run the code and perform analysis on the simulations they perform. These users may interact with developers of the system requesting new features and reporting bugs found and will typically make heavy use of the input file format.
Assumptions and Dependencies
The Porous Flow module is developed using MOOSE and can itself be based on various MOOSE modules, as such the SRS for the Porous Flow module is dependent upon the files listed at the beginning of this document. Any further assumptions or dependencies are outlined in the remainder of this section.
The Porous Flow module is designed with the fewest possible constraints on hardware and software. For more context on this point, the Porous Flow module SRS defers to the framework Assumptions and Dependencies.
References
Definitions and Acronyms
This section defines, or provides the definition of, all terms and acronyms required to properly understand this specification.
Definitions
Verification: (1) The process of: evaluating a system or component to determine whether the products of a given development phase satisfy the conditions imposed at the start of that phase. (2) Formal proof of program correctness (e.g., requirements, design, implementation reviews, system tests) (24765:2010(E), 2010).
Acronyms
| Acronym | Description |
|---|---|
| INL | Idaho National Laboratory |
| LGPL | GNU Lesser General Public License |
| MOOSE | Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment |
| NQA-1 | Nuclear Quality Assurance Level 1 |
| POSIX | Portable Operating System Interface |
| SRS | Software Requirement Specification |
System Requirements
In general, the following is required for MOOSE-based development:
A POSIX compliant Unix-like operating system. This includes any modern Linux-based operating system (e.g., Ubuntu, Fedora, Rocky, etc.), or a Macintosh machine running either of the last two MacOS releases.
| Hardware | Information |
|---|---|
| CPU Architecture | x86_64, ARM (Apple Silicon) |
| Memory | 8 GB (16 GBs for debug compilation) |
| Disk Space | 30GB |
| Libraries | Version / Information |
|---|---|
| GCC | 9.0.0 - 12.2.1 |
| LLVM/Clang | 10.0.1 - 19 |
| Intel (ICC/ICX) | Not supported at this time |
| Python | 3.10 - 3.13 |
| Python Packages | packaging pyaml jinja2 |
Functional Requirements
!sqa requirements link=False collections=FUNCTIONAL category=porous_flow
Usability Requirements
!sqa requirements link=False collections=USABILITY category=porous_flow
Performance Requirements
!sqa requirements link=False collections=PERFORMANCE category=porous_flow
System Interfaces
!sqa requirements link=False collections=SYSTEM category=porous_flow
System Operations
Human System Integration Requirements
The Porous Flow module is command line driven and conforms to all standard terminal behaviors. Specific human system interaction accommodations shall be a function of the end-user's terminal. MOOSE (and therefore the Porous Flow module) does support optional coloring within the terminal's ability to display color, which may be disabled.
Maintainability
The latest working version (defined as the version that passes all tests in the current regression test suite) shall be publicly available at all times through the repository host provider.
Flaws identified in the system shall be reported and tracked in a ticket or issue based system. The technical lead will determine the severity and priority of all reported issues and assign resources at their discretion to resolve identified issues.
The software maintainers will entertain all proposed changes to the system in a timely manner (within two business days).
The core software in its entirety will be made available under the terms of a designated software license. These license terms are outlined in the LICENSE file alongside the Porous Flow module source code. As a MOOSE physics module, the license for the Porous Flow module is identical to that of the framework - that is, the LGPL version 2.1 license.
Reliability
The regression test suite will cover at least 95% of all lines of code within the Porous Flow module at all times. Known regressions will be recorded and tracked (see Maintainability) to an independent and satisfactory resolution.
System Modes and States
MOOSE applications normally run in normal execution mode when an input file is supplied. However, there are a few other modes that can be triggered with various command line flags as indicated here:
| Command Line Flag | Description of mode |
|---|---|
-i <input_file> | Normal execution mode |
--split-mesh <splits> | Read the mesh block splitting the mesh into two or more pieces for use in a subsequent run |
--use-split | (implies -i flag) Execute the simulation but use pre-split mesh files instead of the mesh from the input file |
--yaml | Output all object descriptions and available parameters in YAML format |
--json | Output all object descriptions and available parameters in JSON format |
--syntax | Output all registered syntax |
--registry | Output all known objects and actions |
--registry-hit | Output all known objects and actions in HIT format |
--mesh-only (implies -i flag) | Run only the mesh related tasks and output the final mesh that would be used for the simulation |
--start-in-debugger <debugger> | Start the simulation attached to the supplied debugger |
The list of system-modes may not be extensive as the system is designed to be extendable to end-user applications. The complete list of command line options for applications can be obtained by running the executable with zero arguments. See the command line usage.
Physical Characteristics
The Porous Flow module is software only with no associated physical media. See System Requirements for a description of the minimum required hardware necessary for running the Porous Flow module.
Environmental Conditions
Not Applicable
System Security
MOOSE-based applications such as the Porous Flow module have no requirements or special needs related to system security. The software is designed to run completely in user-space with no elevated privileges required nor recommended.
Information Management
The core framework and all modules in their entirety will be made publicly available on an appropriate repository hosting site. Day-to-day backups and security services will be provided by the hosting service. More information about MOOSE backups of the public repository on INL-hosted services can be found on the following page: GitHub Backups
Polices and Regulations
MOOSE-based applications must comply with all export control restrictions.
System Life Cycle Sustainment
MOOSE-based development follows various agile methods. The system is continuously built and deployed in a piecemeal fashion since objects within the system are more or less independent. Every new object requires a test, which in turn requires an associated requirement and design description. The Porous Flow module development team follows the NQA-1 standards.
Packaging, Handling, Shipping and Transportation
No special requirements are needed for packaging or shipping any media containing MOOSE and Porous Flow module source code. However, some MOOSE-based applications that use the Porous Flow module may be export-controlled, in which case all export control restrictions must be adhered to when packaging and shipping media.
Verification
The regression test suite will employ several verification tests using comparison against known analytical solutions, the method of manufactured solutions, and convergence rate analysis.