SEBdemo - Documentation

Welcome to the SEBdemo documentation. This site is short and focused: the primary deliverable is the desktop demo application (app.py) which provides a friendly GUI for exploring material choices and the surface energy balance. The underlying numerical model is also available as a programmatic library (model.py) for scripted experiments.

Quick links

• Model overview
• Governing equations
• Software license

Which interface should I use?

• GUI (recommended for interactive exploration): run app.py. The GUI exposes inputs for materials, forcing and solver settings, and provides Results, Term-by-term and Animation views so you can visualise Ts, fluxes and vertical temperature profiles without writing code.
• Programmatic API (recommended for scripting and batch runs): import model.py and call run_simulation(mat, params, dt, tmax). This gives direct access to the time series, flux diagnostics and full temperature profiles so you can embed the model in tests, analyses or automated workflows.

Quick start

1. Create a virtual environment and install requirements:

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

1. Run the desktop app:

python app.py

1. Or run the model from Python (script or REPL):

from model import load_material, run_simulation
mat = load_material('sandy_dry')
forcing = ...  # build forcing dict (see model.py example)
params = {'beta': 0.5, 'h': 10.0, 'forcing': forcing, 'thickness': 1.0}
out = run_simulation(mat, params, dt=1800.0, tmax=48*3600)

How to cite

If you use this software in published work, please cite the project. A short citation is:

SEB Roof Material Comparator (https://github.com/mvreeuwijk/SEBdemo)