cantera/interfaces/matlab

Experimental MATLAB Toolbox for Cantera

The MATLAB Cantera interface has been fully modernized to improve usability, performance, and maintainability. The legacy toolbox has been replaced with a fully object-oriented structure, providing MATLAB classes that directly map to Cantera objects and functions.

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Installation Guide

Prerequisites

1. MATLAB (R2024a or later)
2. MATLAB-compatible C++ compiler. Refer to the supported compilers list.

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Installation Steps

1. Download the MATLAB Cantera toolbox

   • Pull Cantera source code from GitHub

2. Obtain Cantera library and header files

   • Compile from source by following Cantera Source Install instructions.

3. Add toolbox to MATLAB path

   • Windows/MacOS: Launch MATLAB, navigate to the toolbox folder using Browse for Folder, and add it (including subfolders) to the MATLAB search path. Example:

     /path/to/cantera/interfaces/matlab
     

   • Linux: Configure MATLAB to use the system C++ library instead of MATLAB’s built-in version:

     export LD_PRELOAD=/path/to/system/C++/library
     

     Then launch MATLAB and add the toolbox path as above.

4. Build the MATLAB Cantera interface Run the following commands in MATLAB:

   ctToolboxDir = '/path/to/cantera/source/interfaces/matlab';
   ctCLibIncludeDir = '/path/to/cantera/include';
   ctLibDir = '/path/to/cantera/library';
   ct.buildInterface(ctToolboxDir, ctCLibIncludeDir, ctLibDir);
   

   If you compiled Cantera from source, ctCLibIncludeDir should be path/to/cantera/source/interfaces/clib/include and ctLibDir should be path/to/cantera/source/build/lib or the corresponding locations after installation.

5. Verify build After building, the compiled interface should appear under:

   /path/to/cantera/interfaces/matlab/cantera/ctMatlab
   

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Usage Guide

1. Load the toolbox

   ct.load()
   

   The interface supports two modes:

   • 'outofprocess' (default) — higher stability and compatibility with some performance overhead; required on Linux.
   • 'inprocess' — runs inside MATLAB with lower overhead.

2. Run examples Navigate to the samples folder:

   /samples/matlab
   

3. Run the unit test suite Navigate to the test folder:

   /test/matlab
   

   Execute:

   runMatlabInterfaceTests.m
   

4. Unload the toolbox To stop using the interface, run:

   ct.cleanUp
   ct.unload
   

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