CFX

Overview

CFX is a general purpose fluid dynamics product from ANSYS.

Restrictions on use

CFX is installed alongside fluent. You will need to be in the fluent unix group to access it. Only MACE users may be added to the fluent group.

Set up procedure

You must load one of the following modulefiles to access CFX. Several versions are available:

module load apps/binapps/cfx/19.0
module load apps/binapps/cfx/18.1
module load apps/binapps/cfx/18.0
module load apps/binapps/cfx/16.2
module load apps/binapps/cfx/14.5
module load apps/binapps/cfx/14.0

If you wish to compile your own user-defined routines (e.g., a fortran .F file to be compiled in to your simulation), you should also load one of the Intel Compiler Fortran modulefiles. For example:

module load compilers/intel/fortran/17.0.2

See the CSF Intel Compiler page for more details of available versions.

Running the application

Please do not run CFX on the login node.

Serial batch job submission

Make sure you have the modulefile loaded and your input file available on the CSF. Then write a batch submission script, for example:

     #$ -V
     #$ -cwd

     cfx5solve -def CombustorEDM.def

Now submit it to the batch system:

     qsub scriptname

replacing scriptname with the name of your submission script.

Parallel batch job submission

1. Make sure you have the modulefile loaded and your input file available on the CSF in the directory you wish to run the job. Then create a batch submission script in that directory, for example:

   #$ -V
   #$ -cwd
   #$ -pe fluent-smp.pe 4
   
   cfx5solve -start-method "$PLATMPI" -def CombustorEDM.def -par-local -partition $NSLOTS
   

   Notes about the script:

   • -start-method "$PLATMPI" (including the quotes as shown) is important and ensures that the most suitable MPI is used.
   • -partition $NSLOTS (no quotes needed here) is important to ensure that the number of cores requested is used.
   • You MUST use fluent-smp.pe as this is a special configuration to ensure the software runs correctly in batch
   • Minimum number of cores for parallel CFX jobs is 2, maximum is 4. You may run more than one job at a time if there are resources available.
2. Now submit it to the batch system:

        qsub scriptname
   

replacing scriptname with the name of your submission script.

Errors

The SGE/batch error output file e.g. mycfxjob.e12345 may report:

map size mismatch; abort
: File exists

several times. This is common and does not cause a problem to running jobs.

Interactive use

Please do not run the GUI on the login node. If you require the GUI please run it via qrsh.

• Log into the CSF with X11 enabled.
• Make sure you have the modulefile loaded:

module load apps/binapps/cfx/14.0

• Use qrsh to start the GUI on a compute node:

     qrsh -V -l inter -l twoday cfx5

If you get the error ‘Your “qrsh” request could not be scheduled, try again later!”‘ it means that there are no interactive resources available. You can try ‘-l short’ instead of ‘-l twoday’ or submit as a serial job instead.

CSF qrsh documentation.

Further info

Documentation is available via the GUI.

Updates

Additional updates made to the package if appropriate