D-Claw

D-Claw is a software library for the simulation of dense granular flows over spatially variable topography. D-Claw builds on clawpack, is written in Fortran, and has a python wrapper. The code is hosted on code.usgs.gov and mirrored on github.

D-Claw is supported on Linux/Unix only.

Using the documentation

The documentation contains multiple elements. Most users should start with the background and theory pages, which provide an introduction to what D-Claw is and what equations it solves. Should a user find that they want to install and use D-Claw themselves, they can refer to the installation instructions. A few example applications are provided.

Each application of D-Claw is specified through a parameter input file called setrun.py. This file includes information about the simulation domain, the initial conditions, and scalar values. Many parameters in setrun are inherited from clawpack and a user should expect to read the clawpack documentation to fully understand all options. This page provides a template setrun.py. This template includes extensive comments that describe the nature and format of D-Claw specific parameters.

D-Claw has a data model written in python and a set of utility functions that assist with use of clawpack’s visclaw tools. Refer to the API for the documentation of these python tools. Most users will find the setrun.py page a more usable description of the D-Claw data model than the API documentation.

Warning

D-Claw is scientific software. A user should expect to gain a high-level of understanding by reading the documentation. For detailed understanding, a user should expect to read the source code. Additionally, some elements of D-Claw are experimental and may change.

D-Claw has been used in many scientific publications. If you use D-Claw in a publication, cite as below and send us a message so we can update the bibliography.

Citation

If you use D-Claw in a publication, cite it as follows:

George, D.L., Barnhart, K.R., and Iverson, R.M., 2025,
D-Claw - A library for simulation of granular-fluid flows,
version 1.0.0: U.S. Geological Survey software release,
https://doi.org/10.5066/P13GUXUT.

Bibtex:

@misc{george_2025,
        title = {D-Claw - A library for simulation of
                granular-fluid flows, version 1.0.0},
        author = {George, D.L. and
                  Barnhart, K.R. and
                  Iverson, R.M.},
        url = {https://code.usgs.gov/claw/dclaw},
        year = {2025},
        doi = {10.5066/P13GUXUT}
    }