Bug Report: EB-C14 case fails with amr.max_level=2 in the latest PeleC

[ShuyingJiang-bachelor]

I’ve found a potential issue with the EB-C14 case in the latest version of PeleC.

In the default eb-c14.inp file for EB-C14, if the setting is kept as:

amr.max_level = 1 # maximum level number allowed

the case runs without any problems.

However, if I change it to:

amr.max_level = 2 # maximum level number allowed

the simulation immediately crashes with the following error:

Initializing EB2
Successfully read inputs file ...
Starting to call amrex_probinit ...
Successfully run amrex_probinit
Initializing EB2 structs
Using quadratic stencil for the EB gradient
amrex::Abort::0::pc_fill_sv_ebg: zero apnorm !!!
SIGABRT
See Backtrace.0 file for details

From what I remember, the older versions of PeleC could run this case with AMR levels higher than 1. To confirm this, I tested the same EB-C14 case with an older version of PeleC and set amr.max_level to 2, 3, and 4 — all ran successfully without errors.

Based on these results, I suspect that some recent changes in PeleC may have affected the EB-C14 case when using AMR levels greater than 1.

[marchdf]

Hi, thanks for bringing this up. I am able to reproduce this. I backed up about 6 months to c9a0f87 and still see it. Could you tell me what version of PeleC worked for this case?

[ShuyingJiang-bachelor]

Certainly, I have checked it. The date of the old version is 2023-12-15 (PeleC), in which the EB-C14 can be calculated successfully with AMR level more than 2.

[marchdf]

Ok thanks for checking. Can you isolate a commit with bisection between 2023-12-15 and c9a0f87 where it broke?