Mulit-Process environment for FastV8

[Muddassir.Nawaz]

Hello,

I have my thesis on this topic {A testing environment conceptually developed, which make use of NRELs FAST turbine simulator in a Multi-process environment}.

My question is, do FAST support Multi-process environment? or can FAST be run in Multi-process environment? I came up with alternative method (since this is my first time using FAST) for this same as Bonnie Jonkman mention in

https://wind.nrel.gov/forum/wind/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=642 as

You can run multiple copies of FAST simultaneously on the same computer without issue. The operating system takes care of issues associated with storing variables while running simultaneous simulations. (The only possible exception would be if you compiled FAST to call an external dll--like a controller--and then it would depend on the dll.)

if Yes, then How, Can you provide any example? i am unable to find any data related to this topic.

Thanks
Muddassir Nawaz

[Jason.Jonkman]

Dear Muddassir,

Bonnie's response pertained to running multiple FAST simulations at the same time on multiple cores or multiple nodes. She was not referring to parallelization of an individual FAST simulation.

An NREL colleague—Mike Sprague—was funded by the Intel Parallel Computing Center to begin parallelizing FAST on the Intel Xeon and Xean Phi processors, but I’m not been involved in that project and don’t know the status (I’ll ask him and follow up when I know more).

We have implemented OpenMP-based parallelization in our yet-to-be-released FAST.Farm tool for full wind-farm simulation.

Best regards,

[Muddassir.Nawaz]

Dear jason,

Thank you for your response.

An NREL colleague—Mike Sprague—was funded by the Intel Parallel Computing Center to begin parallelizing FAST on the Intel Xeon and Xean Phi processors, but I’m not been involved in that project and don’t know the status (I’ll ask him and follow up when I know more).

I will wait for your response.

My idea is to load multiple instances of FAST. Only changing parameter will be the controller dll. (this is only idea i have for Multi-Process environment )
I am new to FAST, Its my third week since i started studying FAST. If you have any information/document related to my idea, that would be helpful.

Thank you
best regards
Muddassir Nawaz

[Jason.Jonkman]

Dear Muddassir,

You don't need to do anything special to load multiple instances of FAST at the same time. Simply invoke as many FAST executable simulations as you have cores on your computer and the simulations will run without trouble.

Best regards,

[Ricardo.Amaral]

Dear Jason,

Are there any news regarding the parallelization of an individual FAST/OpenFAST simulation?

Best regards,
Ricardo Amaral

[Jason.Jonkman]

Dear Ricardo,

Not much. The comments in the posts above are still valid. I don't believe the Intel Parallel Computing Center project led to any substantial changes to OpenFAST.

OpenMP parallelization has been added to the free-vortex wake submodel of AeroDyn (OLAF).

Within our ARPA-E ATLANTIS project WEIS, we do have some funds for later in 2021 to outline strategies to reduce the computational expense of OpenFAST, but this project has a limited scope and will be mostly use to outline the strategies rather than on specific implementations.

Best regards,