using any .fst file only does one test for the output

[lt72884]

I have been running into an issue and not sure how to fix this. If i take the 5MW OC4 SEMI LINEAR.fst file and drop it onto the openfastx64.exe to run it (or use the cmd line) it runs for about 30 seconds and only does ONE of the tests. The output file is nothing more than just pitch, roll, time etc etc. Nothing else is generated and no errors are given in the cmd prompt. What am i missing?

thanks

[jjonkman]

Dear @lt72884,

I'm not sure I understand your question. It sounds like you are running one single simulation of OpenFAST and obtaining the results, as expected.

Best regards,

[lt72884]

i would not call this a basic question. I have been toying with it for 4 hours. In the excel file, i see the names of things, units etc, but no where does it tell me where or how to add the parameter for testing. No where in the documentation online or a pdf file i have does it even mention the excel file, i did a CTRL+F to try and find it, nothing.

I understand that NREL cant offer unlimited support, but if you make a software package and expect people to use it and dont offer the correct instructions or support, the software is then worthless and so is the company that makes it. I deal with agile project management all the time. expecting new users to just "know" by messing around with a very complex software, as the documentation states, is means for failure.

This is not a basic question. Doing a search in the documentation for outlists yields one result for using simulink, which i am not using.

"The outputs from FAST to Simulink are the values that are written to the FAST output file(s). The values are output to Simulink every time the S-Function is called, and thus, are not affected by FAST’s DT_Out parameter. These outputs are the channels defined in module OutList variables;"

again, where are these outputs going? do they go in the .fst file? the inp file? the sum file? if so, what am i adding to the .fst,.sum,.inp file? the instructions IN the excel file tell me nothing of how to add them to the outlists, nor do i see a file named outlists in the openfast directories, i did a search for outlists and *.outlists and nothing.

again, the vagueness is not helping and assuming new users know how to use this complex software is a mistake.

thanks

Another PDF states to edit the .dvr file, i do not have those on windows... so i have no idea what you mean in this statement :

"You can add outputs by adding them to the OutList sections of the various module input files."

what is the input file and what is the proper syntax and way to add said outputs to the outlist section? No where in my openfast do i have a file named input. you literally could have said in the orginal post what the input file is and shown a simple example of the syntax.. this could have been solved 7 posts ago

[jjonkman]

Dear @lt72884,

I agree that the OpenFAST documentation can be improved, but there are many documents available to review.

Figure 4 from the following documentation (and associated text) describes which files are input files and which are output files: https://openfast.readthedocs.io/en/main/_downloads/5f2ddf006568adc9b88d8118dc3f1732/FAST8_README.pdf.

The OutList section of each module input file is described in the corresponding documentation of that module, e.g., here is the documentation for the OutList of AeroDyn: https://openfast.readthedocs.io/en/main/source/user/aerodyn/input.html#outputs. Most modules have similar documentation and OutList sections. If you open up the module input file of the sample models in the r-test, you'll also find the OutList section. The OutListParameters.xlsx spreadsheet I linked to above contains the master list of all output parameters, sorted by module.

Best regards,

[lt72884]

so the input file of aerodyn is the .sum file and .dvr file?

which one is the input file. i have many files with different extensions, none of htem say input or end in .input.

here are the file extension i have:
.dll
.dvr
.md
.sum
.outb
.dat
.fst
.rst

which file extension is the input file that i need to edit by adding in the name from the excel file. such as this unique name N4DMyl.
Figure 4 shows primary.dat as a file, i do not have primary.dat in my list of files, however, i do have:
NRELoffshrBaselin5MW_BeamDyn.dat

are you syaing that i edit that file i wrote above and add the unique name of N4DMyl to a section somewhere in that file?

thanks

[jjonkman]

Dear @lt72884,

As explained in the FAST v8 ReadMe file with Figure 4, the module input files typically have a .dat extension, with the primary input file of FAST / OpenFAST typically given a .fst extension. A standalone module-level driver input file is tyipcally given a .dvr extension. (But OpenFAST does not require you to use these extensions.) Summary output files are given a .sum extension and time-series output files are given .out (for text-based files) or .outb (binary) extensions.

NRELoffshrBaselin5MW_BeamDyn.dat is a BeamDyn module input with its OutList at the bottom of the file. You can find similar input files for the ElastoDyn, AeroDyn, ServoDyn modules, etc.

Best regards,

[lt72884]

Interesting, i opened up the aerodyn.dat and it seems empty. Below is all thats in the file. How do i add wind speed to the file? IE "VRel" so that i can test the windmill at different speeds?

there is no section labeled outlists, do i need to create one

there is also no .fst file in the folder. this is for the baseline 5mw

thanks

NREL 5.0 MW offshore baseline aerodynamic blade input properties; note that we need to add the aerodynamic center to this file
====== Blade Properties =================================================================
19 NumBlNds - Number of blade nodes used in the analysis (-)
BlSpn BlCrvAC BlSwpAC BlCrvAng BlTwist BlChord BlAFID BlCb BlCenBn BlCenBt
(m) (m) (m) (deg) (deg) (m) (-) (-) (m) (m)
0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.5420000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
1.3667000E+00 -8.1531745E-04 -3.4468858E-03 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.5420000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
4.1000000E+00 -2.4839790E-02 -1.0501421E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.8540000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
6.8333000E+00 -5.9469375E-02 -2.5141635E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 4.1670000E+00 2 0.0 0.0 0.0
1.0250000E+01 -1.0909141E-01 -4.6120149E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 4.5570000E+00 3 0.0 0.0 0.0

[lt72884]

I found this thread, which helps, but what if a outlist or output field does not exist like it does on my example above?

#557

thanks

I added some extra parameters to a file and it shows them as requested outputs in the list, but they do not show any output in the actual .sum file. specifically col 7,8,9

Col Parameter Units

---

0 Time (s)
1 BldPitch2 (deg)
2 IPDefl1 (m)
3 IPDefl2 (m)
4 TwstDefl1 (deg)
5 TwstDefl2 (deg)
6 TwstDefl3 (deg)
7 RootFzb1 (kN)
8 RootMIP1 (kN-m)
9 RootMzb1 (kN-m)
10 RootMxb2 (kN-m)
11 RootMyb2 (kN-m)
12 RootMzb2 (kN-m)
13 LSShftFys (kN)
14 LSShftFzs (kN)
15 LSSTipMys (kN-m)
16 LSSTipMzs (kN-m)
17 YawBrTDxp (m)
18 YawBrTDyp (m)
19 YawBrMxn (kN-m)
20 YawBrMyn (kN-m)
21 YawBrMzn (kN-m)

Interpolated blade 1 properties:

Node BlFract RNodes DRNodes PitchAxis StrcTwst BMassDen FlpStff EdgStff
(-) (-) (m) (m) (-) (deg) (kg/m) (Nm^2) (Nm^2)
1 0.033 2.858 2.217 0.258 11.100 180.854 1.112E+09 1.140E+09
2 0.100 5.075 2.217 0.296 11.100 183.682 7.967E+08 9.759E+08
3 0.167 7.292 2.217 0.324 11.100 186.510 4.817E+08 8.121E+08
4 0.233 9.508 2.217 0.338 10.407 184.016 2.571E+08 6.655E+08
5 0.300 11.725 2.217 0.332 8.380 171.286 2.067E+08 5.519E+08
6 0.367 13.942 2.217 0.324 6.353 158.557 1.562E+08 4.382E+08
7 0.433 16.158 2.217 0.315 4.327 145.827 1.058E+08 3.246E+08
8 0.500 18.375 2.217 0.308 2.850 130.509 6.886E+07 2.369E+08
9 0.567 20.592 2.217 0.301 2.217 111.223 5.272E+07 1.887E+08
10 0.633 22.808 2.217 0.295 1.583 91.935 3.659E+07 1.406E+08
11 0.700 25.025 2.217 0.286 0.950 72.647 2.045E+07 9.245E+07
12 0.767 27.242 2.217 0.278 0.532 56.249 1.025E+07 5.928E+07
13 0.833 29.458 2.217 0.272 0.380 43.422 7.387E+06 4.459E+07
14 0.900 31.675 2.217 0.265 0.228 30.595 4.524E+06 2.990E+07
15 0.967 33.892 2.217 0.256 0.076 17.767 1.661E+06 1.522E+07

[jjonkman]

Dear @lt72884,

I'm not fully sure where you obtained this file, but the file you reference with:

NREL 5.0 MW offshore baseline aerodynamic blade input properties; note that we need to add the aerodynamic center to this file
====== Blade Properties =================================================================
19 NumBlNds - Number of blade nodes used in the analysis (-)
BlSpn BlCrvAC BlSwpAC BlCrvAng BlTwist BlChord BlAFID BlCb BlCenBn BlCenBt
(m) (m) (m) (deg) (deg) (m) (-) (-) (m) (m)
0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.5420000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
1.3667000E+00 -8.1531745E-04 -3.4468858E-03 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.5420000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
4.1000000E+00 -2.4839790E-02 -1.0501421E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 3.8540000E+00 1 0.0 0.0 0.0
6.8333000E+00 -5.9469375E-02 -2.5141635E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 4.1670000E+00 2 0.0 0.0 0.0
1.0250000E+01 -1.0909141E-01 -4.6120149E-01 0.0000000E+00 1.3308000E+01 4.5570000E+00 3 0.0 0.0 0.0

is not a primary input file of AeroDyn. Rather, this is a blade input file that is referenced within the primary input file of AeroDyn. The OutList of AeroDyn is specified within the primary input file of AeroDyn, not in the blade input file.

For example, in the OpenFAST r-test, you can find the primary input file of AeroDyn (where you can find the AeroDyn OutList) for the land-based version of the NREL 5-MW baseline wind turbine here: https://github.com/OpenFAST/r-test/blob/main/glue-codes/openfast/5MW_Land_DLL_WTurb/NRELOffshrBsline5MW_Onshore_AeroDyn15.dat. And the blade input file (without an OutList) for this model is found here: https://github.com/OpenFAST/r-test/blob/main/glue-codes/openfast/5MW_Baseline/NRELOffshrBsline5MW_AeroDyn_blade.dat.

Within OpenFAST, wind speed is not specified within the AeroDyn module; rather, wind speed is specified within the InflowWind module.

Regarding your question of the summary file, I'm not really understanding your question. Please clarify what you changed in your input file(s), what you obtained in the summary file, and why this is different than you were expecting.

Best regards,

[lt72884]

ok, for the first part:)

Thank you for pointing out that is the blade file. What if a folder doesnt have an aerodyn.dat file? for example, in this path and folder for the 5MW baseline, there is no aerodyn.dat file to edit

D:\Documents\Cloud Drive\UVU\Windmill internship\OpenFast\r-test-ef6ab575919f1db597702f1c3f86a16bdc2b4338\r-test-ef6ab575919f1db597702f1c3f86a16bdc2b4338\glue-codes\openfast\5MW_Baseline

how would i add an aerodyn.dat file here to test? i tried to copy and paste one from another folder and it crashed with fatal errors..

for the second question,

i found a r-test that had the elastodyn.dat file in it, saw the outlists and added 3 of my own parameters to the list. Specifically as follows:
"RootFzb1,RootMIP1,RootMzb1"
i saved the file and then ran the .fst file. According to the summary file, it shows the new parameters added to the list, but for some reason, the putput was never printed to the file. If i remove them, the output does not change. So the parameters are not getting used.

in the xlx file it states that those are loads and they are ones im looking for so i am expecting to see some sort of value to be printed to the file so i can use those load numbers. IE, RootFzb1 has units of KN. But the summary and output files do not list the output of rootfzb1. no matter what parameters i add to the outlists, the output of the .sum and .out file remain the same and never change.

Here is an example. Using the 5MW_Land_BD_Linear folder located on my pc here:

D:\Documents\Cloud Drive\UVU\Windmill internship\OpenFast\r-test-ef6ab575919f1db597702f1c3f86a16bdc2b4338\r-test-ef6ab575919f1db597702f1c3f86a16bdc2b4338\glue-codes\openfast\5MW_Land_BD_Linear

i edit the elastodyn.dat file to have the 3 parameters i want. and here is the complete output from the summery file. It shows nothing of my added parameters. Im guessing the 61 other parameters are output to their own files such as 5MW_Land_BD_Linear_ED.sum
" "SrvD.sum
" "aero.sum

but it doesnt give an output file for my elastodyn parameters?

FAST Summary File

Predictions were generated on 19-Jun-2023 at 11:37:19 using OpenFAST, compiled as a 64-bit application using single precision at commit v3.5.0
compiled with
NWTC Subroutine Library
ElastoDyn
BeamDyn
InflowWind (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
AeroDyn14 (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
AeroDyn (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
ServoDyn
HydroDyn (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
SubDyn (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
ExtPtfm_MCKF (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
MAP (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
FEAMooring (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
MoorDyn (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
OrcaFlexInterface (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
IceFloe (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]
IceDyn (unknown version, unknown date) [not called]

Modeling a land-based turbine
Description from the FAST input file:
FAST Certification Test #26: NREL 5.0 MW Baseline Wind Turbine (Onshore)

Interpolation order for input/output time histories: 2 (quadratic)
Number of correction iterations: 0
Number of rows in Jacobian matrix used for coupling ElastoDyn, SubDyn, HydroDyn, OrcaFlex, ExtPtfm_MCKF, and/or BeamDyn: 24

Requested Time Steps

Component Time Step (s) Subcycles (-)

---

FAST (glue code) 1.500E-03
ElastoDyn 1.500E-03 1
BeamDyn 1.500E-03 1
ServoDyn 1.500E-03 1
FAST output files 1.500E-03 1

Requested Channels in FAST Output File(s)

Number Name Units Generated by

---

0 Time (s)
1 BldPitch2 (deg)
2 IPDefl1 (m)
3 IPDefl2 (m)
4 TwstDefl1 (deg)
5 TwstDefl2 (deg)
6 TwstDefl3 (deg)
7 RootFzb1 (kN)
8 RootMIP1 (kN-m)
9 RootMzb1 (kN-m)
10 RootMxb2 (kN-m)
11 RootMyb2 (kN-m)
12 RootMzb2 (kN-m)
13 LSShftFys (kN)
14 LSShftFzs (kN)
15 LSSTipMys (kN-m)
16 LSSTipMzs (kN-m)
17 YawBrTDxp (m)
18 YawBrTDyp (m)
19 YawBrMxn (kN-m)
20 YawBrMyn (kN-m)
21 YawBrMzn (kN-m)
If i look in the ED.sum file, it shows the parameters but doesnt list the output numbers i need. You can see right above this sentence that it shows the 21 outputs from the outlist, including mine from 7,8,9, but the output is never generated and printed to the file. SO i have no idea what value in KN 7 is. It should output an actual value and number

thanks

[lt72884]

Im still running into issues with the file. I checked apendix B and my values are the same. So im not sure what it wants now. If im using the exact values from appendix B as you mentioned i should, then i dont know whats causing the error when i run the .fst file that now points to the new .bts file in the inflowwind.dat file.

FAST_Solution0:CalcOutputs_And_SolveForInputs:SolveOption2:SolveOption2c_Inp2AD_SrvD:InflowWind_Ca
lcOutput:CalculateOutput:IfW_FlowField_GetVelAcc:Grid3DField_GetCell: G3D wind array boundaries
violated. Grid too small in Z direction (Z=126.32 m is above grid.)
InflowWind_CalcOutput:InflowWind_GetSpatialAverage:CalculateOutput:IfW_FlowField_GetVelAcc:Grid3DF
ield_GetCell: GF wind array boundaries violated: Grid too small in Y direction. Y=-40.454; Y
boundaries = [-40, 40]

Second, line 22 in appendix B is wrong for the turbsim.inp. You can not use "ALL" for time or it errors out in the command promt saying invalid time used. Default value is 40. So i set it to 40 because "ALL" does not work

Invalid numerical input for file ".\TurbSim.inp".
The error occurred while trying to read the usable output time.

Aborting TurbSim.

[lt72884]

i have tried to look for the grid values to change and can not find them so i do not know why its not working. its tarting to make my eyes twitch haha

[lt72884]

ok, i took the values form the 90M_12MS.inp found in the 5MW_baseline wind folder for grid height becaus ei know those values work, but when i try to use the new .bst file, open fast still has a fatal error.

i used the exact values from the 90M_12MS.inp turbsim file that is used by default when running the 5MW_Land_DLL_WTurb.fst for the first time. It should work but it is not. in pydatview, the files have identical values...

why cant open fast understand that?

Grid too small in Z direction (height (Z=8.5261 m) is below the grid and no tower
points are defined).

Here is the numbers i used for the .inp file based off of the default values that are in the 90M_12MS.inp which was used to create the 90M_12MS.bts file that is used by default when you run the 5MW_Land_DLL_WTurb.fst for the first time.

Turbine/Model Specifications-----------------------
31 NumGrid_Z - Vertical grid-point matrix dimension
31 NumGrid_Y - Horizontal grid-point matrix dimension
0.05 TimeStep - Time step [seconds]
630 AnalysisTime - Length of analysis time series [seconds] (program will add time if necessary: AnalysisTime = MAX(AnalysisTime, UsableTime+GridWidth/MeanHHWS) )
60 UsableTime - Usable length of output time series [seconds] (program will add GridWidth/MeanHHWS seconds unless UsableTime is "ALL")
90 HubHt - Hub height [m] (should be > 0.5GridHeight)
145 GridHeight - Grid height [m]
145 GridWidth - Grid width [m] (should be >= 2(RotorRadius+ShaftLength))
0 VFlowAng - Vertical mean flow (uptilt) angle [degrees]
0 HFlowAng - Horizontal mean flow (skew) angle [degrees]

Im thinking each dot on the grid is 4.67741 meters apart, if there are 31 of them. Making a 145 meter grid in each direction. The center hub should be greater than half the grid height according to the instructions. my hub is (0,0,90) and the hub should be at the center of the grid meaning there is 17.5 meters of tower NOT covered by the grid.

17.5+(145/2)= 90 meters and since the diameter is 63*2, we should be fine with 145 meters.

my ref height is 90 meters in the inflowwind file but that is for a wind type of 1. in my turbsim file, the ref height is 90 as shown above.

These values should work since they came right from the original default file that works just fine. I even tried to run the 90M_12MS.inp file to generate a new .bts with a higher wind and command prompt errors out due to a randomseed issue so even the default file doesnt work haha

thanks a million times over for helping me out haha. here is a pretty picture of what i THINK the grid is looking like, and i may be wrong.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DWAEfVBm1p83LMSe7

[lt72884]

I found this on the NREL forums

If you have tower aerodynamics enabled, you likely have aerodynamic nodes that extend along the tower well below the rotor. You can generate wind there by setting GridHeight larger than GridWidth (see Figure 5 in the TurbSim documentation for more information: https://www.nrel.gov/wind/nwtc/assets/downloads/TurbSim/TurbSim_v2.00.pdf 1) or by outputting from TurbSim wind along the tower (WrADTWR = TRUE). You can also eliminate tower aerodynamic nodes that extend below the wind domain.

Is this what i need to do? Also, if my turbsim.inp file does not have the WrADTWR line, can i add it??

thanks

EDIT: i changed the grid height to 155 and it worked. Now time to test with changing the windspeed and see what happens.