a Package for Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

Below you find explanations to obtain and check out product licenses and regarding support and training.

Functionality

Simulation of Turbulent flow in Arbitrary Regions - Computational Continuum Mechanics + (STAR-CCM+) is a C++ based finite-volume-based program package for modelling of fluid flow problems and beyond. It is developed by Siemens PLM Software (they bought CD-adapco). Today, the Simcenter STAR-CCM+ package can be applied to a wide range of multiphysics problems such as

Aerospace Engineering
Turbomachinery
Chemical Process Engineering
Automotive Engineering
Building and Environment Engineering

Conditions for Usage and Licensing

Our STAR-CCM+ modules are restricted to members of the adapco user group.

You can apply to become a group member at support@nhr.zib.de - if your usage purpose is research/teaching, or if your are a student. Projects that are financed by industrial partners are not allowed.
To check if you are a UNIX group member you can type: groups

Within the core-h limits of Test Projects (see test account) we provide free Power On Demand (POD) keys for teaching/academic research of non-industry funded projects.
If you fulfil these conditions simply write to support@nhr.zib.de.

In order to run STAR-CCM+ you have to specify the parameters -licpath and -podkey, as shown in the Example Jobscripts below.

Introduction and courses

A product overview is provided here. This documentation describes only the specifics of installation and usage at NHR@ZIB systems. Introductory courses for STAR-CCM+ as well as courses for special topics are offered by Siemens PLM Software: as a student you can join the Siemens Xcelerator Academy for Academics for free.

Documentation and materials

STAR-CCM+ products come with complete documentation. The User Guide is available in PDF format, see directory /sw/eng/starccm/<version>/STAR-CCM+<version>/doc.

Installed versions

To see available versions type:

module avail starccm

All versions use double precision. The recommended default module - providing all necessary environment settings - can be loaded with: module load starccm

Example Jobscripts

Genoa cluster - slurm startscript example

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --partition cpu-genoa:test
#SBATCH --time 01:00:00
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=192
#SBATCH --job-name=StarCCM

module load starccm

## create the host list for StarCCM+
srun hostname -s | sort | uniq -c | awk '{ print $2":"$1 }' > starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID}

export CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE=1999@flex.cd-adapco.com
export PODKEY=<type your podkey here - we can provide one for you - under the above mentioned terms>
export MYCASE=<type your sim file name>

## run starccm+
starccm+ -batch ${MYCASE} \
-power -podkey ${PODKEY} -licpath ${CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE} \
-np ${SLURM_NTASKS} \
-machinefile starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID} 

echo '#################### StarCCM+ finished ############'
rm starhosts.$SLURM_JOB_ID

A100 cluster - slurm startscript example

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --partition gpu-a100:test
#SBATCH --time 01:00:00
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=8	# This needs to be an integer multiple of the GPUs per node.
#SBATCH --gres=gpu:4 # number of GPUs per node
#SBATCH --gpu-bind=single:2 # Recommended: pin each process to its own GPU (single:<ntasks_per_gpu>).
#SBATCH --job-name=StarCCM

## check if GPU offload device is available
nvidia-smi

module load starccm/19.04.007-r8

## create the host list for StarCCM+
srun hostname -s | sort | uniq -c | awk '{ print $2":"$1 }' > starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID}

export CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE=1999@flex.cd-adapco.com
export PODKEY=<type your podkey here - we can provide one for you - under the above mentioned terms>
export MYCASE=<type your sim file name>

## run starccm+
starccm+ -batch ${MYCASE} \
-power -podkey ${PODKEY} -licpath ${CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE} \
-np ${SLURM_NTASKS} -gpgpu auto \
-machinefile starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID} 

echo '#################### StarCCM+ finished ############'
rm starhosts.$SLURM_JOB_ID

CLX cluster - slurm startscript example

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --partition cpu-clx:test
#SBATCH --time 01:00:00
#SBATCH --nodes=2
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=96
#SBATCH --job-name=StarCCM

module load starccm

## create the host list for StarCCM+
srun hostname -s | sort | uniq -c | awk '{ print $2":"$1 }' > starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID}

export CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE=1999@flex.cd-adapco.com
export PODKEY=<type your podkey here - we can provide one for you - under the above mentioned terms>
export MYCASE=<type your sim file name>

## run starccm+
starccm+ -batch ${MYCASE} \
-power -podkey ${PODKEY} -licpath ${CDLMD_LICENSE_FILE} \
-np ${SLURM_NTASKS} \
-machinefile starhosts.${SLURM_JOB_ID} -mpi intel

echo '#################### StarCCM+ finished ############'
rm starhosts.$SLURM_JOB_ID

GUI Client - Server - Connection

Start remote server (headless/without GUI)

module load starccm
starccm+ -server -collab -power -podkey $PODKEY

Known Issues

To check if the license server of CD-adapco is accessible type:

telnet flex.cd-adapco.com 1999

This test (Trying ...) is positiv if the server answers (within a second):
Escape character is '^]'
Typically, after some minutes, a negative test outcome is indicated by:
telnet ... Connection timed out

Tutorial Cases

Tutorial case files can be found in /sw/eng/starccm/<version>/STAR-CCM+<version>/doc/startutorialsdata resp. (with solutions) in /sw/eng/starccm/<version>/STAR-CCM+<version>/tutorials, verification data in /sw/eng/starccm/<version>/STAR-CCM+<version>/VerificationData.