DUNE Features

The following list gives a short overview over the main features of DUNE and refers you to more detailed documentation.

• Grid Implementation

  So far seven grid implementations are available through the DUNE grid interface. Each is geared towards a different purpose and thus has a different set of features. Further grid managers can be obtained by downloading additional modules.

  • AlbertaGrid: The grid manager of the Alberta toolbox
  • ALUConformGrid: ALUCubeGrid: ALUSimplexGrid, a family of grids in two and three space dimension based on the ALUGrid library.
  • GeometryGrid: A metagrid exchanging the host grid's geometry
  • OneDGrid: A sequential locally adaptive grid in one space dimension
  • SGrid: A structured grid in n space dimensions
  • UGGrid: The grid manager of the UG toolbox
  • YaspGrid: A structured parallel grid in n space dimensions


• Linear Algebra

  DUNE contains ISTL (the Iterative Solver Template Library) for powerful linear algebra. The main features are:

  • Abstractions for block matrices (e.g. compressed row storage and block diagonal) and block vectors
  • Block structure arbitrarily nestable
  • High performance through generic programming
  • Expression templates for BLAS1 routines
  • Several standard solvers


• Quadrature Formulas
  • Quadrature rules for all common element types
  • Rules for hypercubes up to order 19, for simplices up to order 12
  • Easy access


• Shape Functions
  • Lagrangian shape functions of arbitrary order
  • Monomial shape functions of arbitrary order for Discontinous Galerkin methods
  • Orthonormal shape functions of arbitrary order
  • Raviart-Thomas shape functions of lowest order for cube and of arbitrary order for simplex elements


• Input/Output
  • Reading grid files in the gmsh format
  • Reading grid files in the grid independent Dune grid format DGF
  • Reading simplex grids through DGF constructed using the tools Tetgen and Triangle
  • Reading and writing in the AmiraMesh format
  • Subsampling of high-order functions
  • Write grids and data in the format of the visualization toolkit (vtk)
  • Visualization using GRAPE
  • Output in Data Explorer format


• Discretization module

  There are some discretization modules available which provide

  • arbitrary order lagrange spaces for different grid structures
  • Discontinuous Galerkin spaces of arbitrary order both with orthonormal and Lagrange basis function
  • further discrete function spaces include Raviart-Thomas, Nedelec, and others
  • linear and non-linear solvers
  • time discretization method, e.g., explicit, implicit, and IMEX Runge-Kutta methods or multistep methods
  • support for parallelization and adaptivity (both h and p refinement)