General

This is some python code that can be used to read sdf files produced by EPOCH PIC simulations. The code behaves similar to that found in the SDF library for MATLAB.

Notes

Currently only works for SDF block types of 1 and 3 This covers basically most grid variables such as:

• number density
• electric and magnetic fields
• mean kinetic energy of a a cell

The code also could be optimised I am sure. Sometimes I find when plotting graphs using loops I need to call gc.collect() from the gc library at the end of each loop to free up memory. Also my experiences collect() does not work in jupyter-notebook. I haven't found out if the 'memory leak' is my fault is from the ReadSDF class or matplotlib. I have a feeling it is from the way I was plotting with matplotlib. This will be updated when I have time to test...

Example Usage

from sdf_functions import ReadSDF
# Initiate the class and print out contents of sdf file
sdf = ReadSDF('0001.sdf')
# Get the variable
grid, data = sdf.get_variable('ElectricField/Ey')
# Close the file (Important when looping through files!)
sdf.close_file()

The name of blocks in file are accessible here

sdf.get_file_contents()

The get_variable function gets the variable figures out what function needs to be called. What it returns will depend on the variable that is called. For something like Number_Density, get_variable will also return the associated grid with it as well unless told otherwise.

The functions like get_plain_variable can also be called directly using

sdf = ReadSDF('0001.sdf')
sdf.get_plain_variable('ElectricField/Ey')

but this isn't really recommended.

The ReadSDF class also has a function to make some plots. Instructions on how to use this will be added at some stage.

I will just be adding to this when I need to for my own simulations. Feel free to fork/make pull requests.