ANSYS Workbench .wrk Recovery File Retention After Successful Simulations

Direct Answer

The .wrk file is deleted only when the Workbench project is explicitly saved and closed through File → Exit after a successful solve. It is not removed immediately when the solver finishes. There is no user-configurable retention period, environment variable, API call, or UI setting that controls this behavior. A lingering .wrk file after a run that shows "Solution completed successfully" almost always means the Workbench session did not shut down cleanly (crash, force-kill, or closing the window without saving).

Confirmed Behavior

• Creation: Workbench writes the .wrk file at solve start to enable crash recovery.
• Deletion trigger: The file is removed during the project shutdown sequence — specifically when the project is saved and Workbench exits via File → Exit.
• No configurability: No documented environment variable (e.g., ANSYS_WRK_RETENTION), Workbench option, or ExtAPI/Journaling method exists to query, force, or time-limit .wrk cleanup.
• Log evidence: wb_log.txt and solver output (solver.out) reference the .wrk path only during recovery initialization on startup, never during routine deletion.

Why Files Linger (Likely Explanations)

• Unclean session termination: User closes the Workbench window via the OS title bar, kills WB.exe/AnsysWB.exe in Task Manager, or experiences a power loss after the solver finishes but before saving/closing the project.
• Network-mounted project directories: Latency or permission issues on shared storage can delay or block the final write that removes the .wrk file, even on a clean shutdown.
• Integrated solver launches: When Workbench drives Mechanical APDL or Fluent as external processes, the cleanup handshake can fail if the solver process exits abnormally or the project lock isn't released cleanly.

Verification Steps for Your Deployment

1. Run a minimal simulation to completion (watch for "Solution completed successfully" in the solver log).
2. Press Ctrl+S to save the project explicitly.
3. Close Workbench via File → Exit (not the window × button).
4. Confirm the .wrk file is gone from the project directory.
5. Repeat the run, but after the solver finishes, kill WB.exe in Task Manager. Relaunch Workbench — it will offer recovery and the .wrk file will still be present.

Practical Workaround

Enterprise teams often deploy a scheduled task (PowerShell, cron, or Windows Task Scheduler) that deletes *.wrk files older than N days from project roots. This is safe only when Workbench is not running. Example PowerShell one-liner for a nightly cleanup:

Get-ChildItem -Path "D:\ANSYS_Projects" -Recurse -Filter "*.wrk" |
Where-Object { $_.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).AddDays(-7) } |
Remove-Item -Force

One Diagnostic Detail Needed

Does your project directory live on a local SSD or a network share (SMB/NFS)? If network-mounted, permission or latency issues are a frequent cause of deletion failure even with clean exits — this changes the remediation from "train users to use File → Exit" to "fix share permissions or move projects local."