Hi,
Is there a way to calculate the hardware requirements needed to use NREL OpenFast for running a full fledged IEC Site specific simulations for Onshore turbines.
Best regards,
Karthik
Dear @Karthik.Prakash,
No specific computer requirements are needed to run OpenFAST. Very large models (i.e., offshore systems with many nodes in HydroDyn and SubDyn) require a lot of RAM (e.g., beyond the 2-GB RAM limit of older 32-bit Windows systems), but this is less of an issue for onshore wind turbines. And obviously the faster the CPU, the faster simulation will run. OpenFAST itself does not take advantage of multi-threading, but it is linked with some libraries (e.g., the Math Kernel Library) that do use multi-threading. Multithreading happens on a single core, not necessarily across cores. The more cores or nodes you have, the more simulations you can run at the same time (in batch mode).
If you intend to run FAST.Farm for multi-turbine simulations in a wind farm, we have developed our FAST.Farm software (the extension to OpenFAST for full wind farms) that employs OpenMP to enable parallel processing across cores within one node. The more cores on a given node that you have enable faster simulations of larger wind farms (more turbines). In this case, multiple nodes, each with many cores, allow you to run multiple FAST.Farm simulations at the same time (in batch mode).
Best regards,
Dear @Jason.Jonkman
Thanks a lot for the reply, this helps. I was planning to use OpenFast for full fledged simulations and planning the hardware requirements.
Best regards,
Karthik