Get Salvus

Our core Salvus product consists of five main modules which cover everything required for waveform modelling and inversion:

SalvusCompute: Parallel high-performance solver for spectral-element wave propagation on unstructured meshes.
SalvusMesh: Library and toolbox to build meshes in both two and three dimensions.
SalvusOpt: Non-linear optimization framework.
SalvusFlow: Workflow orchestration and remote job execution framework tying together various parts of Salvus.
SalvusProject: A high-level user interface and data structure to tie everything together.

We offer these as part of two separate package:

SalvusForward
Includes everything necessary to run highly accurate forward waveform simulations, in two and three dimensions, locally and on remote machines.
SalvusComplete
Everything from the forward analysis package. Additionally unlocks the full power of Salvus by offering everything necessary to run large-scale FWI and other custom workflows.

SalvusForward
Includes everything necessary to run highly accurate forward waveform simulations, in two and three dimensions, locally and on remote machines.

SalvusComplete
Everything from the forward package. Additionally unlocks the full power of Salvus by offering everything necessary to run large-scale FWI and other custom workflows.

SalvusCompute

Massively parallel spectral-element solutions for various wave equations

✓

Run tightly-coupled spectral element simulations on 10s of thousands of CPU and GPU cores in parallel, fully utilizing today's most powerful machines.

Supported physics:

The acoustic (scalar) ultrasonic and seismic wave equation.
The elastic (vector) ultrasonic and seismic wave equation.
Attenuating viscoacoustic and viscoelastic wave equations.
Fully coupled acoustic and elastic simulations.

GPU support using CUDA

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Accelerate your simulations with cutting-edge GPU technology. Our CUDA implementation delivers 10-50× performance increases over CPU-only solutions, with optimized memory access patterns and compute kernels specifically designed for wave propagation problems. Seamlessly switch between CPU and GPU execution for maximum throughput.

Spatially varying material parameters

✓

Model complex heterogeneous media with ease. Define material properties as continuous functions or discrete regions with abrupt interfaces. Support for arbitrary material property distributions enables precise representation of real-world conditions, from gradually varying layers to sharply contrasting structures.

Highly accurate geometries using high order finite elements

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Achieve exponential convergence rates with our high-order spectral element discretization. High-order elements provide superior accuracy compared to traditional linear elements, dramatically reducing numerical dispersion even for long-range wave propagation. Complex geometries maintain smooth curved boundaries without staircase approximations.

Arbitrary anisotropic symmetry systems

✓

Model the full complexity of directional material behavior with support for all elastic anisotropic symmetry systems:

Fully anisotropic (triclinic, 21 independent parameters)
Monoclinic (13 independent parameters)
Orthorhombic (9 independent parameters)
Hexagonal/Transversely isotropic/VTI (5 independent parameters)
Cubic (3 independent parameters)
Isotropic (2 independent parameters)
Acoustic anisotropic symmetry systems are also supported.

Salvus includes sophisticates algorithms to rotate/orient and convert between all these systems to give you the most accurate solution.

Anisotropic attenuation

✓

Capture the full complexity of wave energy dissipation with direction-dependent attenuation modeling. Model intrinsic attenuation anisotropy in fractured media, layered sediments, and crystalline structures with precision. Efficiently handle relaxation mechanisms through memory-variable formulations optimized for parallel computation, ensuring minimal performance impact even for complex attenuation models.

Gradient computation

✓

Compute exact numerically discrete gradients for inverse problems and sensitivity analyses using the adjoint-state method. Efficiently calculate derivatives with respect to thousands of parameters without multiple forward simulations, enabling large-scale inversion studies with minimal computational overhead.

SalvusMesh

Automatic hexahedral meshing for many problems

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Generate simulation-ready hexahedral meshes automatically from simple geometric descriptions. Our intelligent meshing algorithms create high-quality elements optimized for wave propagation, balancing computational efficiency with geometric accuracy. Includes automatic refinement in regions of interest.

Conversion of meshes from external meshing packages

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Seamlessly integrate with your existing workflow. Import quadrilaterl and hexahedral meshes from popular formats and tools including:

CUBIT/Trelis
Gmsh
Other commercial CAD packages via standard exchange formats

Automatic quality checking and optimization ensures imported meshes perform optimally with our solver.

Precise representation of complex surface

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Capture every detail of complex surface geometries. High-order elements conform precisely to real-world surfaces, eliminating artificial reflections from staircased approximations. For geophysical and geotechnical problems we support various elevation data formats and resolutions for accurate simulation of surface waves and reflections.

Meshing of sedimentary basins and salt bodies via automated refinements

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Model geologically complex regions with specialized meshing algorithms. Adaptive refinement concentrates computational power where it matters most:

Automatically detect and refine salt body boundaries
Preserve thin sedimentary layers without excessive element counts
Maintain element quality even in highly deformed regions

SalvusOpt

Sensitivity analysis for complex structures

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Understand how your model responds to parameter variations. Comprehensive sensitivity tools identify which parameters most strongly affect your results, guiding data acquisition strategies and highlighting critical uncertainties in your models.

Diffusion equation based high-performance model smoothing

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Create accurate inverted models with our advanced regularization techniques. Our diffusion-based smoothing preserves critical structures while eliminating unrealistic oscillations, applying directional constraints based on prior knowledge for more plausible results.

Nonlinear optimization framework specialized for deformed grids

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Solve challenging inverse problems on complex geometries. Our specialized optimizer handles the unique challenges of deformed meshes, maintaining stability and convergence even for highly heterogeneous models. Supports multiple objective functions and constraint types.

Newton-type trust-region descent methods

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Achieve rapid convergence for nonlinear problems with sophisticated optimization algorithms. Our implementation of trust-region methods adaptively adjusts step sizes based on local model behavior, avoiding line-search inefficiencies while ensuring robust performance across diverse problem types.

SalvusFlow

Simple input file generation

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Focus on physics, not file formats. Our intuitive input system uses a clean, hierarchical structure with intelligent defaults that get you running quickly. Extensive documentation and templates accelerate the learning curve, with parameter validation to catch issues before they become problems.

Remote job execution framework

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Run simulations anywhere, from local workstations to cloud and HPC resources. Our execution framework transparently handles job submission, monitoring, and data transfer across heterogeneous computing environments, with resume capabilities for fault tolerance.

Rapid experimentation and scaling from prototype to production

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Progress smoothly from initial concept to production deployment. The same codebase scales from small test problems on a laptop to massive production runs on supercomputers, with consistent results and workflows at every scale.

Scalable workflow orchestration engine

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Manage complex simulation campaigns efficiently. Our workflow engine handles dependencies between tasks, automates parameter sweeps, and intelligently distributes work across available resources. Built-in provenance tracking maintains a complete record of all simulation parameters and results.

SalvusProject

Intuitive, high-level user interface and simulation management

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Explore parameter spaces systematically with built-in experimental design tools. From simple grid searches to sophisticated adaptive sampling strategies, our parameter study framework helps you thoroughly explore model behavior while minimizing computational cost.

Parameter studies

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Explore solution spaces efficiently with automated parameter sweeps. Our solver intelligently samples parameter ranges to identify optimal configurations with minimal computational effort.

Scientific data visualizations

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Gain deep insights into your inversion process through specialized visualization tools. Our platform allows you to explore wavefield propagation, gradient evolution, and model updates at every iteration. Identify convergence issues and inversion artifacts. Monitor objective function progression and parameter sensitivities to make informed decisions about your inversion strategy. Generate targeted visualizations that reveal the physics behind your results, not just pretty pictures.

Customizable RTM workflows

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Build tailored Reverse Time Migration workflows for your specific imaging challenges. Customize each stage of the imaging process while maintaining computational efficiency.

Customizable FWI workflows and misfit specifications

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Design flexible Full Waveform Inversion workflows tailored to your unique challenges. Our product offers a comprehensive library of misfit functions including L2 norms, frequency based measurements, and optimal transport metrics for improved cycle-skipping resistance. Implement multi-scale, multi-stage inversion strategies with advanced weighting schemes and dynamic regularization. Easily define custom objective functions through our extensible API to incorporate prior knowledge or handle non-conventional acquisition geometries.

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Get Salvus

Features

SalvusForwardIncludes everything necessary to run highly accurate forward waveform simulations, in two and three dimensions, locally and on remote machines.

SalvusCompleteEverything from the forward package. Additionally unlocks the full power of Salvus by offering everything necessary to run large-scale FWI and other custom workflows.

SalvusForward
Includes everything necessary to run highly accurate forward waveform simulations, in two and three dimensions, locally and on remote machines.

SalvusComplete
Everything from the forward package. Additionally unlocks the full power of Salvus by offering everything necessary to run large-scale FWI and other custom workflows.