Ashes vs Bladed
Ashes and DNV Bladed are both commercial aero-servo-hydro-elastic simulation tools for onshore and offshore wind turbines. Bladed is a long-established industry standard with a strong certification track record; Ashes pairs high-fidelity numerical results with a public, continuously updated benchmark suite, backed by a 15-year track record (developed since 2011). This page gives a factual, side-by-side overview to help you choose.
What they have in common
- Coupled aero-servo-hydro-elastic time-domain simulation of horizontal-axis wind turbines.
- Support for onshore, bottom-fixed and floating offshore turbines.
- Blade element momentum aerodynamics, turbulent wind, and customizable control systems.
- Design load cases, fatigue and extreme-load analysis.
- Commercial software with vendor support.
Where Ashes stands out: high-fidelity results you can verify
Ashes is built to produce high-quality numerical results. The structural response is solved with a nonlinear co-rotational finite element model, fully coupled to blade-element-momentum aerodynamics and to hydrodynamics for bottom-fixed and floating offshore systems—so the physics is captured accurately rather than approximated away.
Crucially, we don't just claim accuracy—we continuously benchmark Ashes against measurement campaigns and other established codes, and publish the results for you to inspect. The suite grows as new reference turbines and validation campaigns appear, and already covers the OC3/OC4/OC6 offshore code-comparison projects, the DTU 10-MW, IEA 15-MW and IEA 22-MW reference turbines, the NREL 5-MW, and cross-checks against OpenFAST, OpenSees and analytical wave models.
Browse the validation & benchmark results »
Ashes is also fast to learn and highly visual—real-time interactive 3-D of forces, deflections, wind and waves—so you spend your time on engineering rather than tooling. But the foundation is the quality of the numbers.
Where Bladed stands out
Bladed has been developed by DNV (and its predecessors) since the 1990s and is one of the most widely used tools for wind turbine design and type certification, with an extensive validation history and broad acceptance among certification bodies. For organisations whose workflow is built around Bladed and formal certification, that maturity and ecosystem are real strengths.
Side-by-side
| Ashes | DNV Bladed | |
|---|---|---|
| Numerical fidelity | Nonlinear co-rotational FEM, fully coupled aero-servo-hydro-elastic engine | Mature, comprehensive aeroelastic engine |
| Continuous benchmarking | Public, continuously updated benchmark suite (OC3/4/6, DTU 10-MW, IEA 15/22-MW, NREL 5-MW, OpenFAST, OpenSees…) | Extensive validation and a long certification record |
| Maturity | 15-year track record (developed since 2011) | Decades-long industry standard, widely used for type certification |
| Cloud & batch | Built-in cloud computing and batch simulation | Batch processing; cloud depends on your own setup |
| Scripting / automation | Python API and command-line control | Programmatic automation interface |
| Workflow & visualization | Modern GUI with real-time interactive 3-D; fast onboarding, free trial | Mature GUI with conventional plots and post-processing |
| Platforms | Windows and Linux | Windows |
| Support | Commercial support and training from Simis | Commercial support from DNV |
Which should you choose?
If your organisation's process is built around Bladed and formal certification, its maturity is hard to beat. If you want high-fidelity results whose accuracy you can verify against a published, continuously updated benchmark suite—in a tool that is also fast and visual to work with—Ashes is built for exactly that. With a 15-year track record behind it, that quality is well established. The best way to judge it is to run your own case.
Try Ashes free for 14 days See what Ashes can do
See how Ashes performs against measurements and code-comparison projects (OC3/OC4/OC6, DTU 10-MW, IEA 15-MW and more): validation & benchmark results.
