HydroChrono 0.4.0 – Major Refactor with Modular Hydrodynamics Core, New HydroSystem Façade & Chrono Coupling Layer

HydroChrono 0.4.0 introduces a fully modular hydrodynamics architecture with a clean HydroSystem façade and a dedicated Chrono coupling layer. This release preserves all existing behaviour while making HydroChrono cleaner, safer, and easier to extend.

Highlights

• New HydroSystem façade — the main user-facing entry point (replaces TestHydro)
• Chrono-free HydroForces core for hydrostatics, radiation, and excitation
• Dedicated ChronoHydroCoupler linking Chrono bodies to the hydrodynamics core
• Unified C++ and YAML workflows (both now use the same hydrodynamics engine)
• Radiation logic consolidated into a single component (IRF processing, history, convolution)
• Exceptions replace critical assert()s; public headers cleaned and namespaced
• Full regression test suite passing (PDF included)

What’s New

• Core
  • Introduced hydrochrono::hydro::HydroForces, SystemState, BodyForces, GeneralizedForce
  • Modular force components: Hydrostatics, Radiation, Excitation
  • Standardised 6-DOF indexing and sign conventions
• Façade & Coupling
  • HydroSystem is the new user-facing class (aliases TestHydro and HydroForces retained for compatibility)
  • New ChronoHydroCoupler builds SystemState and bridges to the core
• Modules & Layout
  • Clean directory structure: core/, chrono/, radiation/, waves/, config/
  • New radiation modules for IRF preprocessing and convolution
• Robustness & Cleanup
  • Replaced assert() with descriptive exceptions
  • Removed using namespace from public headers
  • Explicit Chrono includes; improved file-level documentation

Install (Windows x64)

• Download HydroChrono-0.4.0-win64.zip
• Unzip — all required DLLs included (Chrono, HDF5, yaml-cpp, Irrlicht, MSVC)
• Run regression tests:
  python .\tests\run_hydrochrono\run_tests.py --all