Activities
CFDHub@Polimi implements and manages scientific calculation systems made available by the different interested Departments. Calculation systems implemented within CFDHub@Polimi are mainly used in fluid dynamics and heat exchange modelling, for turbulent, multiphase, and reactive phenomena. The laboratory’s objective is the implementation and management of an HPC system capable of accessing research projects and supporting industrial design with a high technological content and innovation. Within the laboratory, Open-source codes use is promoted, using various modelling approaches including DNS/LES, Lattice Boltzmann and Molecular used in frontier research in the Departments’ areas of interest.
Equipment
The CFDHUB cluster is a high-performance computing infrastructure designed to support advanced scientific research, numerical simulations, and computational fluid dynamics activities within Politecnico di Milano.
The computing environment consists of two interconnected clusters. The main cluster is equipped with a high-speed InfiniBand optical network and provides more than 200 compute nodes, over 11,000 CPU cores, more than 48 TB of aggregate memory, and over 1.8 PB of storage capacity.
Computing Infrastructure
The main cluster includes several classes of systems designed to address different computational needs:
- Front-end nodes
Dedicated access and management systems based on DELL R7625 servers, equipped with dual AMD EPYC 9224 24-core processors and 768 GB of RAM. - GPU-accelerated nodes
High-performance DELL 7725 systems equipped with dual AMD EPYC 9655 96-core processors, NVIDIA H200 GPU units, and 768 GB of RAM, Optimized for AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and GPU-accelerated scientific simulations - Compute nodes
A broad set of calculation nodes, including DELL R7725 and DELL R7625 servers with dual AMD EPYC 9655 or AMD EPYC 9654 processors and 768 GB of RAM, supporting large-scale parallel simulations and intensive numerical workloads.
High-Performance Scratch Area
The cluster provides a high-performance scratch area based on a parallel file system and interconnected through 200/400 Gbps InfiniBand networking. This environment is engineered to accelerate data-intensive workloads and support demanding simulation campaigns.
The scratch storage is organized into two main pools:
- Performance Pool – Full Flash
Based on NVMe technology, this pool delivers very low latency and high bandwidth for I/O-intensive workloads. - Capacity Pool – Hybrid
Combining SSD and HDD technologies, this pool provides a balanced solution for large-scale datasets, offering both responsiveness and high storage density.
Home and Archive Storage
In addition to the scratch area, the CFDHUB platform includes an enterprise-grade storage architecture for user data and long-term retention.
- User home directories
Hosted on a dedicated full-flash storage pool to ensure fast and responsive access for all cluster users. - Long-term archive
A hybrid storage volume based on high-capacity HDDs and SSD drives, designed to securely retain simulation outputs and research data over time.
Enabling Advanced Research
By combining a large number of compute nodes, high-speed networking, GPU acceleration, and scalable storage, the CFDHUB cluster provides researchers with a powerful and flexible platform for computational science, engineering simulations, and high-performance data processing.
Procedures and costs of using equipment
Laboratory access methods for the interested Department and other Polimi users are regulated through remote access (graphic and data transfer terminal connection) and hourly rates per calculation core used. For further details on resources access methods and costs, please email the contact person.
Contact Point
Riccardo Mereu (DENG)
E-mail: riccardo.mereu@polimi.it
Ph. +39.02.2399.3830
For technical information:
Luigi Urbinati
E-mail: luigi.urbinati@polimi.it
Ph. +39.02.2399.2325