MicroStructPy - Microstructure Mesh Generation in Python

Repository Documentation PyPI

MicroStructPy is a microstructure mesh generator written in Python. Features of MicroStructPy include:

• 2D and 3D microstructures

• Grain size, shape, orientation, and position control

• Polycrystals, amorphous phases, and voids

• Mesh verification

• Visualizations

• Output to common file formats

• Customizable workflow

Fig. 1 The primary steps to create a microstructure. 1) seed the domain with particles, 2) create a Voronoi power diagram, and 3) convert the diagram into an unstructured mesh.

Examples

These images were created using MicroStructPy. For more examples, see the Examples section.

Fig. 2 Examples created using MicroStructPy.

Quick Start

To install MicroStructPy, download it from PyPI using:

pip install microstructpy

If there is an error with the install, try pip install pybind11 first, then install MicroStructPy. This will create a command line executable and python package both named microstructpy. To use the command line interface, create a file called input.xml and copy this into it:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<input>
    <material>
        <shape> circle </shape>
        <size> 0.15 </size>
    </material>

    <domain>
        <shape> square </shape>
    </domain>
</input>

Next, run the file from the command line:

microstructpy input.xml

This will produce three text files and three image files: seeds.txt, polymesh.txt, trimesh.txt, seeds.png, polymesh.png, and trimesh.png. The text files contain all of the data related to the seed geometries and meshes. The image files contain:

Fig. 3 The output plots are: 1) seed geometries, 2) polygonal mesh, and 3) triangular mesh.

The same results can be produced using this script:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import microstructpy as msp


phase = {'shape': 'circle', 'size': 0.15}
domain = msp.geometry.Square()

# Unpositioned list of seeds
seeds = msp.seeding.SeedList.from_info(phase, domain.area)

# Position seeds in domain
seeds.position(domain)

# Create polygonal mesh
polygon_mesh = msp.meshing.PolyMesh.from_seeds(seeds, domain)

# Create triangular mesh
triangle_mesh = msp.meshing.TriMesh.from_polymesh(polygon_mesh)

# Plot outputs
for output in [seeds, polygon_mesh, triangle_mesh]:
    plt.figure()
    output.plot(edgecolor='k')
    plt.axis('image')
    plt.axis([-0.5, 0.5, -0.5, 0.5])
    plt.show()

Publications

If you use MicroStructPy in you work, please consider including these citations in your bibliography:

K. A. Hart and J. J. Rimoli, Generation of statistically representative microstructures with direct grain geometry control, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 370 (2020), 113242. (BibTeX) (DOI)

K. A. Hart and J. J. Rimoli, MicroStructPy: A statistical microstructure mesh generator in Python, SoftwareX, 12 (2020), 100595. (BibTeX) (DOI)

The news article AE Doctoral Student Kenneth A. Hart Presents MicroStructPy to the World, written by the School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech, describes MicroStructPy for a general audience.

License and Attribution

MicroStructPy is open source and freely available. Copyright for MicroStructPy is held by Georgia Tech Research Corporation. MicroStructPy is a major part of Kenneth (Kip) Hart’s doctoral thesis, advised by Prof. Julian Rimoli.