Cantera
NumFOCUS Sponsored Project since 2018Cantera is an open source software suite that helps users solve problems involving thermodynamics, chemical reaction rates, and fluid transport processes. The software is written to be flexible and efficient, handling these calculations in a way that lets the user shift their attention to other elements of their calculations. Because it is open source, the software can be easily extended to support the needs of any particular researcher.
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Industry
Business & Industry Applications
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Language
Python
Matlab
C
C++
Fortran
Features
Modeling
Subject Area Libraries
Cantera is an open source suite of object-oriented software tools for problems involving chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and/or transport processes. The software automates the chemical kinetic, thermodynamic, and transport calculations so that the users can efficiently incorporate detailed chemical thermo-kinetics and transport models into their calculations.
The code utilizes object-oriented concepts for robust yet flexible phase models, and algorithms are generalized so that users can explore different phase models with minimal changes to their overall code. Currently, Cantera can be used from Python and Matlab, or in applications written in C++ and Fortran 90. Cantera also provides a limited number of solvers for time-dependent reactor networks and steady one-dimensional reacting flows.
Cantera has been adopted by a wide range of users across diverse research fields. Its largest user base is in the combustion field, but Cantera has also seen applications in energy storage (such as batteries and fuel cells), geochemistry, chemical processing, thin film deposition, plasma science, and atmospheric/astronomical chemistry.
Cantera has been used in projects at a variety of research institutions and companies, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, University of Connecticut, Argonne National Laboratories, Oregon State University, Siemens Canada, Northeastern University, Brown University, Bucknell University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Colorado School of Mines, Stanford University, Politecnico di Torino, Université d’Orléans, University of Florida, SouthWest University of Science and Technology (China), Polytechnic University of Milan, University of California – Irvine, University of Tokyo, DLR Stuttgart, Offenberg University of Applied Sciences, and many others.
