Welcome to the PyCFAST documentation

PyCFAST is a Python interface for the Consolidated Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) fire simulation software, providing an easy-to-use Python programming interface for building and running fire scenarios. It allows researchers and engineers to automate, customize, create CFAST input files, execute simulations, and analyze results using the versatility and extensive ecosystem of Python.

Motivation

CFAST is a long-established fire modeling software written in Fortran and traditionally run through its graphical interface (CEdit). This reliance on a GUI can make large parametric studies, automation, and reproducibility cumbersome.

With the release of version 7.7.0 of CFAST, a new tool called CData was introduced to support Monte Carlo simulations. While useful for some workflows, CData has certain limitations: several parameters (e.g., radiative fraction, fire chemistry) are not properly handled, it is not highly customizable, and it can be prone to bugs. To address these limitations, this library was initially developed internally at Orano to connect CFAST with the Python scientific ecosystem (notably for the scipy.optimize module). Over time, it evolved into a general-purpose programming interface and now, can be used as an alternative to CData for automation, reproducibility, and advanced analyses.

User Guide

• Installation
• Getting Started
• Examples

Reference

• API
  • CFASTModel
  • CFAST Components
  • Parser

Development

• Contributing Guide
• Changelog

Other

• Acknowledgments
• Licence
• Citation