CFD fails due to portOffset files not found

The first step in a coupled simulation is to set up the communication between the DEM and CFD sides. Which ports are used for communication by the individual Aspherix processes is stored in a set of files (portOffset_<procNr>) in the directory where Aspherix is executed.

The CFD reads these files to connect to the correct ports. If the portOffset files are not available, establishing the data connection will fail.

The portOffset files can be unavailable for various reasons, e.g.:

• An error occured in Aspherix before the socket setup was reached. Check the log file written by Aspherix.

• The CFD searches for these files in the wrong location. By default the folder ../DEM/ and the local (CFD) simulation folder are checked (in that order). If the DEM simulation is executed in a different location, set the portFilePath for the twoWaySocket to the correct path.

• The DEM has not yet opened the socket communication because some command is not yet completed. This issue can, for instance, occur when using large meshes in Aspherix. Messages on socket creation or socket-related issues are printed on both sides with a time stamp which helps in diagnosing such problems. Have a look at the timeOut and nTries settings in twoWaySocket to prolong the waiting times during socket setup and connection to circumvent this problem.