Core Hours is the number of CPUs used for tasks such as meshing, design, or toolpath generation multiplied by the job duration.
Example 1: If one CPU is used for one hour to perform design, the core hours=1
Example 2: If 10 CPUs are used for 2 hours to perform design, the core hours=20
The factors contributing to the duration can be categorized into two main groups:
1. Computational Process: This encompasses the number of load cases, the design objective, the number of elements, and the complexity of the model.
2. Infrastructure and Data Management: This includes network speed, the availability of virtual machines, and the efficiency of pulling and pushing data.
While the second category affects the time it takes to receive the results of the computational process, the actual core hours attributable to the first category are what is counted towards your remaining core hours.
Below are the number of core hours for various case studies. As you can see the number of elements, strength vs stiffness, and number of load cases contribute to the number of core hours
