6.6.2 Memory Usage

During an ANSYS FLUENT session you may want to check the amount of memory used and allocated in the present analysis. ANSYS FLUENT has a feature that will report the following information: the numbers of nodes, faces, cells, edges, and object pointers (generic pointers for various mesh and graphics utilities) that are used and allocated; the amount of array memory (scratch memory used for surfaces) used and allocated; and the amount of memory used by the solver process.

You can obtain this information by selecting the Mesh/Info/Memory Usage menu item.

Mesh $\rightarrow$ Info $\rightarrow$ Memory Usage

The memory information will be different for UNIX and Windows systems.

UNIX Systems

On UNIX systems, note the following definitions related to process memory information:

• Process static memory is essentially the size of the code itself.

• Process dynamic memory is the allocated heap memory used to store the mesh and solution variables.

• Process total memory is the sum of static and dynamic memory.

Windows Systems

On Windows systems, note the following definitions related to process memory information:

• Process physical memory is the allocated heap memory currently resident in RAM.

• Process virtual memory is the allocated heap memory currently swapped to the Windows system page file.

• Process total memory is the sum of physical and virtual memory.

Note the following:

• The memory information does not include the static (code) memory.

• In the serial version of ANSYS FLUENT, the heap memory value includes storage for the solver (mesh and solution variables), and Cortex (GUI and graphics memory), since Cortex and the solver are contained in the same process.

• In the parallel version, Cortex runs in its own process, so the heap memory value includes storage for the mesh and solution variables only.

On Windows systems, you can also get more information on the ANSYS FLUENT process (or processes) by using the Task Manager (see your Windows documentation for details). For the serial version, the process image name will be something like fl1206s.exe. For the parallel version, examples of process image names are as follows: cx392.exe ( Cortex) and fl1206.exe (solver host).