Ashes vs OpenFAST
Ashes and OpenFAST are both aero-servo-hydro-elastic simulation tools for onshore and offshore wind turbines. They take different approaches. This page gives a factual, side-by-side overview to help you choose the right tool for your work.
What they have in common
- Coupled aero-servo-elastic (and hydro) time-domain simulation of horizontal-axis wind turbines.
- Support for onshore, bottom-fixed and floating offshore turbines.
- Blade element momentum aerodynamics, turbulent wind input and customizable control systems.
- Suitability for design load cases, fatigue and extreme-load analysis.
- A strong commitment to validated, high-fidelity numerical results.
Where Ashes stands out: high-fidelity results you can verify
OpenFAST is a widely validated, de-facto research standard—and that's exactly why we hold Ashes to the same bar. Ashes produces high-quality numerical results from a nonlinear co-rotational finite element model fully coupled to blade-element-momentum aerodynamics and offshore/floating hydrodynamics.
We continuously benchmark Ashes against measurement campaigns and other established codes—including OpenFAST itself—and publish the results. 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 »
On top of that, Ashes wraps the solver in a fast, visual workflow with real-time interactive 3-D and commercial support—but the foundation is the quality of the numbers.
Where they differ
| Ashes | OpenFAST | |
|---|---|---|
| Numerical fidelity | Nonlinear co-rotational FEM, fully coupled aero-servo-hydro-elastic engine | Validated modular aero-servo-hydro-elastic solver (ElastoDyn/BeamDyn, AeroDyn, HydroDyn…) |
| Continuous benchmarking | Public, continuously updated benchmark suite, including cross-checks against OpenFAST | Extensively validated; widely used research reference |
| License & cost | Commercial license with a free 14-day evaluation; discounted academic licenses | Free and open source (Apache 2.0), developed by NREL |
| Workflow & interface | Graphical UI with interactive 3-D; run a simulation in minutes | Input-file and command-line driven; no official graphical interface |
| Scripting / automation | Python API and command-line control | Fully scriptable via input files; rich ecosystem (e.g. Python wrappers) |
| Cloud & batch | Built-in cloud computing and batch simulation | Run anywhere you provision compute; orchestration is up to you |
| Support | Commercial support and training from Simis | Community support, documentation and the NREL user forum |
| Platforms | Windows and Linux | Windows, Linux and macOS |
When OpenFAST is a good fit
OpenFAST is an excellent choice when you need a free, open-source, fully scriptable solver, want to inspect or modify the source, or are working in a research workflow that automates thousands of runs and doesn't need an interactive interface. It is widely validated and a de-facto standard in wind energy research.
When Ashes is a good fit
Ashes is for engineers who want high-fidelity results whose accuracy they can verify against a published, continuously updated benchmark suite—delivered through a fast, visual workflow with commercial support and a 15-year track record (developed since 2011). If you want the quality of a validated solver without building and maintaining your own tooling around it, Ashes is worth a look.
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.
