Compost Pile Thermal Succession

Every compost pile is a self-heating bioreactor: aerobic microbes oxidise food scraps and yard waste, releasing energy as heat and driving the pile through mesophilic and thermophilic phases before it cools and cures. This simulator models that heat balance directly from the carbon:nitrogen ratio, moisture content, pile insulation and oxygen supply, rendering a 3D pile whose colour tracks the real internal temperature gradient. Turn the pile to resupply oxygen to the core, or let it sit and watch an anaerobic zone form as the centre suffocates — the same trade-off every real composter manages by hand.