The scope of MilleFEuiIle

MilleFEuiIle [mil·fœj], a short for Multi-InstrumentaL Lagrangian-Eulerian FEniCS-Using Ice-I Layer Explorer, is a computational code built upon the open-source finite-element python library FEniCS, developed to solve thermo-mechanical evolution of ice shells of icy bodies. Combining finite element method and Lagrangian markers, MilleFEuiIle can be used to address a variety of problems in 2D Cartesian geometry, such as

  • thermal and thermo-compositional convection

  • evolution of surface and ice-ocean interface

  • phase transition at the ice-ocean interface

  • tectonic deformation with visco-elasto-plastic rheology

  • melt generation and transport inside the ice shell (using Rayleigh-Taylor approximation)


Installation and running

You can download the most recent version of MilleFEuiIle here , which is built up on FEniCS 2019.2.0 .

To launch at N cores, type into the command line

mpirun -n N main.py > log.out 2> log_e.out&

You can also use the predefined bash script, where the number of cores and the name of the current parameter file can be preset (e.g., m_parameters_europa.py). The script renames the main file and the terminal output accordingly (main_europa.py, europa.out and europa_e.out), and runs the simulation on background

bash run_MilleFEuiIle.sh &

Visualization

For visualization of the mesh data, use Paraview, or the example matplotlib scripts in Demos.


Citation

For the latest released version of the code:

For thermal convection, free surface, phase boundary evolution:

  • Kihoulou, M., Čadek, O., Kvorka, J., Kalousová, K., Choblet, G. and Tobie, G. (2023). Topographic response to ocean heat flux anomaly on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Icarus 391, 115337, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2022.115337

For thermal convection, free surface, tectonic deformation:

  • Kihoulou, M., Choblet, G., Tobie, G., Kalousová, K. and Čadek, O. (2025). Subduction-like process in Europa’s ice shell triggered by enhanced eccentricity periods. Science Advances 11, eadq8719, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq8719


Support

Information on the methodology and the benchmarks can be found in my dissertation thesis.

This page was last updated on Feb 24, 2026 and is still under development. With any questions, issues or ideas, please contact me at martin.kihoulou@mff.cuni.cz.


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