Coupleable

This class provides API for coupling different kinds of variables values into MOOSE systems. The following table summarizes the methods and kinds of values they provide:

Method	Description
coupledValue	Values of a coupled variable in q-points
coupledGradient	Gradients of a coupled variable in q-points
coupledSecond	Second derivatives of a coupled variable in q-points
coupledNodalValue	Values of a coupled variable at nodes.
coupledVectorValue	Values of a coupled vector variable in q-points
coupledCurl	Curl of a coupled vector variable in q-points
coupledDot	Time derivative of a coupled variable
coupledDotDu	Derivative of a time derivative of a coupled variable
coupledNodalDot	Nodal value of the time derivative of a coupled variable
coupledVectorDot	Time derivative of a coupled vector variable

For values, gradients and second derivatives, users can request old and older values in case they are running a transient simulation. In case of old and older values, the methods are called coupledValueOld and coupledValueOlder, respectively. Similarly,

Optional Coupling

To determine if a variable was coupled, users can use isCoupled method. The typical use case looks like this:


_value(isCoupled("v") ? coupledValue("v") : _zero)

However, this use case became obsolete and now it is recommended to use default values for optionally coupled variables, see the following example:


validParams<Class>()
{
  InputParameters params = validParams<BaseClass>();
  params.addCoupledVar("v", 2., "Coupled value");
  ...
}

Class::Class(...) : BaseClass(...),
  _v(coupledValue('v'))

The advantage here is that users can provide arbitrary default values to their variables.

Coupling of Vectors of Variables

Users can couple a vector of variables using the following syntax:


v = 'a b c'

This syntax provides 3 variables coupled as a variable v in a MOOSE object using the Coupleable interface. The number of components coupled into can be obtained by coupledComponents method. Then, individual components can be obtained by calling coupledValue (or any other method mentioned above) passing in the variable name (as usual) and the component index. See the following example:

Declarations:


class B : public A
{
  ...
protected:
  unsigned int _n_vars;
  std::vector<MooseVariable *> _vars;
};

Implementation:


validParams<B>()
{
  InputParameters params = validParams<A>();
  params.addRequiredCoupledVar("v", "Coupled value");
  ...
}

B::B(...) : A(...),
  _n_vars(coupledComponents("v"))
{
  for (unsigned int i = 0; i < _n_vars; i++)
    _vars.push_back(dynamic_cast<MooseVariable *>(getVar("v", i)));
}

Optional Coupling
Coupling of Vectors of Variables