ANSYS LS-DYNA

Guidance last updated: 19 October 2026

Ansys LS-DYNA is the industry-leading explicit simulation software used for applications like drop tests, impact and penetration, smashes and crashes, occupant safety, and more.

LS-DYNA supports shared-memory processing on one node and distributed-memory processing across nodes. The example below uses shared-memory processing.

Caution

ANSYS users can now use a maximum of 400 concurrent cores, across all devices on campus, including personal machines and HPC clusters, and regardless of the number of ANSYS applications they have open. Please see ANSYS license restrictions for more detail.

Warning

Multi-core LS-DYNA jobs require a production licence-server update, which is not currently planned. The route below was tested with updated licences; single-core jobs are available now.

Usage

After connecting to Stanage (see Establishing a SSH connection), start an interactive session:

salloc

You can load a specific version with the following command:

module load ANSYS/2026R1
module load ANSYS/2023R2

Shared-memory batch jobs

The following example batch submission script runs the double-precision shared-memory solver on one CPU. Save it as batch.sh in the directory containing your LS-DYNA input file, i.k:

#!/bin/bash
#SBATCH --nodes=1
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=1
#SBATCH --mem=4000
#SBATCH --job-name=ANSYS-LSDYNA-Example
#SBATCH --output=ANSYS-LSDYNA-Example
#SBATCH --time=01:00:00

module load ANSYS/2026R1
cd "$SLURM_SUBMIT_DIR"

export LSTC_LICENSE_FILE=network
export LSTC_LICENSE_SERVER=ansyslm.shef.ac.uk
export LSTC_LICENSE=ANSYS
export PATH="$ANSYSPATH/ansys/bin/linx64:$PATH"

lsdyna_dp.e i=i.k memory=50m ncpu="$SLURM_NTASKS"

For a four-CPU shared-memory job, change --ntasks-per-node=1 to --ntasks-per-node=4. This uses the same solver command, with four shared-memory threads.

Submit the job with:

sbatch batch.sh

Choose resources appropriate to your model. Further details are in the batch submission guide.

Installation notes

ANSYS was installed using Easybuild, build details can be found in $EBROOTANSYS/easybuild with a given module loaded.

ANSYS LS-DYNA training and help resources

Important

Academic support requests should be directed to the IT Services’ Research and Innovation team or the ANSYS Learning Forum (ensure you register with your University email for priority support).

ANSYS provides numerous academic training and help resources including tutorials, video lectures and examples. A short list of these resources is summarised below:

Notes

If a job reports unavailable licences, check its log before resubmitting.

For other issues or if you wish to purchase some reserved licences please contact IT Services.