Components
Presently the PLASMAKIN package has two components:
- libpk:
- The main chemical kinetics library.
- pypk:
- A Python extension module allowing access libpk from Python programs.
Chemical species and reaction data are written in an ASCII file that is read through libpk
The interaction between the several components is shown in the figure bellow:
From a Fortran program (Fortran 95 and above) the pk module is loaded
with a USE instruction.
The datafile is read and all the information
on species and reactions is kept on libpk.
In PLASMAKIN the dependence of reaction rates on electron- or gas-temperature or on pressure can be set through an "extended" Arrhenius function. However if a particular reaction has a more "exotic" dependency, the used can define that function in a routine SetRate(), callable by libpk.
The use of libpk is not limited to Fortran or C programs.
It can be used also from Python scripts.
From a Python script, library functions and data can be accessed as
Python classes and functions importing the pypk module.