Issue running TurbSim in parallel on 30 CPU cores

Dear NREL community,

I am encountering an issue when running TurbSim in parallel from MATLAB using parfor on 30 CPU cores.
When I execute TurbSim sequentially (single core), everything works as expected. However, when I try to run multiple TurbSim instances simultaneously (parallel execution), the processes appear to hang and no output is produced beyond a certain point.

My MATLAB code ensures that each parallel iteration writes its own .inp file and output directory, but the issue persists. Without actually running TurbSim (only creating directories and copying the .inp file), the parallel loop completes without problems.

This makes me suspect that TurbSim itself might be experiencing file-access conflicts or other issues when multiple instances are run in parallel.

Has anyone successfully run TurbSim on multiple cores in parallel? If so, what setup or precautions are required to avoid such conflicts?

Thank you in advance,

Best Regards,

Riad

@Riad.Elhamoud ,

Based on this question on the MATLAB forums https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1630605-system-command-in-parfor-loop, I think there is an issue with using system inside parfor. That thread offered a couple of suggestions, which may be helpful.

I’ve done this kind of parallel processing in Python or with make or ninja if you’d like to explore those options.

Regards,

Derek.Slaughter

1 Like