Running an OpenFOAM Motorbike Simulation on Qarnot HPC This tutorial will guide you through launching an OpenFOAM simulation on the Qarnot HPC platform. You'll run a motorbike aerodynamics case, which is a standard OpenFOAM example that simulates airflow around a motorbike.
By the end of this tutorial, you will:
Upload the required input files to the Qarnot platform Configure and launch an OpenFOAM simulation Set up periodic snapshots to monitor progress Access and verify your simulation results Prerequisites Before starting this tutorial, make sure you have a Qarnot account with access to the HPC platform
Step 1: Prepare your input files Download motorbike case (Open Foam foundation 11 , for Open Foam 2412 ) Extract the downloaded archive to a local folder This will create a folder containing all the necessary OpenFOAM configuration files for the motorbike simulation Step 2: Creating a new simulation task Log in to your Qarnot HPC platform account Navigate to the "Create New Task" section Start configuring your simulation by filling in the basic information: Software Configuration In the Software section, enter the following details:
Name: Test-Motorbike Software: OpenFOAM Version: 11 (resp. 2412) Step 3: Configure input data and command In the Input section:
Click on "Upload local asset to create new cloud folder" Select the MOTORBIKE folder you extracted earlier Ensure "Use it for storing results" is checked Command: Allrun Step 4: Configure hardware resources In the Hardware section:
Pricing plan: Flex Hardware: Select one of the available Xeon options (recommended for better availability) Nodes count: 1 Max Wall time: 48 hours (the simulation should complete in around 30 minutes, but this gives you a buffer) Note : While AMD processors in the single core section are available, they are less common in production and might result in longer queue times.
Step 5: Configure snapshot settings Expand the Advanced Settings section Set the snapshot parameters:Interval: 90 seconds (periodic snapshots will be taken every 90 seconds) Optionally, configure filtering options: Whitelist: Enter regular expressions to specify which files to include (e.g., .*\.log to only include log files) Blacklist: Enter regular expressions to specify which files to exclude (e.g., .*\.tmp to exclude temporary files) Leave the remaining advanced settings at their default values Step 6: Launch the simulation Review all your configurations Click the Start button to launch your simulation You'll be redirected to the main page, and can then open the simulation just launched. It will bring you to the simulation monitoring page where you can track the progress of your run Step 9: Access and verify results Once the simulation completes (approximately 30 minutes on Xeon processors), the status will change to "Success" Navigate to your cloud storage folder to access the results You should see new files and directories created by the simulation Specifically check for:The share directory Inside the share directory, locate the log.foamRun file Verify that the file ends with the following output, confirming a successful simulation: Time = 500 s
smoothSolver: Solving for Ux, Initial residual = 0.000179671 , Final residual = 1.76545 e- 05 , No Iterations 2
smoothSolver: Solving for Uy, Initial residual = 0.00390968 , Final residual = 0.000383084 , No Iterations 2
smoothSolver: Solving for Uz, Initial residual = 0.00355162 , Final residual = 0.0003481 , No Iterations 2
GAMG: Solving for p, Initial residual = 0.00811676 , Final residual = 0.000338057 , No Iterations 2
time step continuity errors : sum local = 3.99326 e- 05 , global = - 4.36312 e- 07 , cumulative = 0.000206543
smoothSolver: Solving for nuTilda, Initial residual = 0.000250288 , Final residual = 7.44096 e- 06 , No Iterations 3
ExecutionTime = 1100.13 s ClockTime = 1101 s
streamlines streamlines write :
Seeded 20 particles
Sampled 18835 locations
forceCoeffs forces write :
Cm = 0.18873
Cd = 0.46329
Cl = 0.0716145
Cl(f) = 0.224537
Cl(r) = - 0.152922
End
Finalising parallel run
Conclusion Congratulations! You have successfully launched your first OpenFOAM simulation task on the Qarnot HPC platform. You've learned how to:
Configure an OpenFOAM simulation Set up periodic snapshots Monitor a running simulation Verify simulation results What's next? Now that you've completed your first simulation, you might want to:
Experiment with different hardware configurations to optimize performance Try running larger simulations with multiple nodes Explore different snapshot filtering options to focus on specific result files Visualize your simulation results using ParaView or other visualization tools Troubleshooting If your simulation doesn't complete successfully:
Check the log files for error messages Verify that your input files were uploaded correctly Ensure that the "Allrun" script has executable permissions Try increasing the wall time if your simulation is timing out Contact Qarnot support if you continue to experience issues 