Running Simulink model in a loop causes Windows memory issues

Hi,

I am running Simulink model in a loop to test various cases, i.e. do a sweep across range of parameters. My code is:

for i = 1:numColsVin
    for j = 1:numColsRload
        for k = 1:numColsfout
            model = 'SimulinkModelv001';
            load_system(model);
            sim(model);
            
            % Some code
        end
    end
end

After 10 or so iterations I have noticed that my disk memory increases, i.e. I get Windows warning that hard drive is running out of space and MATLAB closes. I have been running the same code on version 2012b, 2014b and 2015a never had similar issues. I am logging data, doing post-processing and printing after each iteration.

And when I say memory increase, it is more than 200 GB for 10 iterations!! I don't know where the data is located and I keep getting Windows warnings to remove some data from my hard drive. Only MATLAB was running when this happened. What is all that data? How to delete? How to disable from appearing? Is there any settings in the Simulink to prevent this?

Kind regards

[Fangjun Jiang]

Do you have "To File" blocks in the model? It will save the logged data to a .mat file.

[Igor]

No. I use signal logging in the Simulink model.

I was investigating a bit further the issue and it seems Temp file is the one causing the memory increase. In the last case it was 180 GB big. I have modified the code as shown below and for now I don’t see memory increase...

for i = 1:numColsVin
    for j = 1:numColsRload
        for k = 1:numColsfout
            model = 'SimulinkModelv001';
            load_system(model);
            sim(model);
            
            % Some code
            
            close_system(model);
            % tempdir
            % Simulink.sdi.getSource
            Simulink.sdi.clear % clear temp data
        end
    end
end

[Helder Magalhães]

This problem seems to be a known issue: Size of temporary DMR file that stores logged simulation data increases with each simulation run in rapid accelerator mode (2507175).

As stated, a fix is only available in R2021b; the proposed workaround is the one in the accepted answer (Simulink.sdi.clear).

Answer 1

[Igor]

Adding close_system(model) and Simulink.sdi.clear after the code in each loop solved the problem.

for i = 1:numColsVin
    for j = 1:numColsRload
        for k = 1:numColsfout
            model = 'SimulinkModelv001';
            load_system(model);
            sim(model);
            
            % Some code
            
            close_system(model);
            % tempdir
            % Simulink.sdi.getSource % location of stored temp data
            Simulink.sdi.clear % clear temp data
        end
    end
end