The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is studying advanced composite materials for use in making lightweight, more fuel-efficient aircraft. JAXA is able to increase processing times by 400 percent over its previous standalone workstations by using SIMULIA Abaqus software on a cluster running the Windows HPC Server 2008 operating system. Researchers find the cluster easy to use and manage, and JAXA plans to expand the cluster to keep up with demand.
Business Needs
The Japanese government created the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2003 by merging three of the country’s aerospace organizations to form a centralized governmental aerospace institute. The JAXA vision involves advancing Japan’s aerospace industry and developing supersonic aircraft.
Rising fuel costs and a growing awareness of the need for environmental conservation have caused the aerospace industry to seek lightweight, fuel-efficient aircraft. JAXA is working to respond to that demand. The organization’s Advanced Composite Group conducts in-depth research on various composite materials—such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics—and studies how the industry could use these materials to reduce aircraft weight and increase performance.
The Advanced Composite Group’s finite element analyses and other tests evaluate the materials’ strength, performance, and additional factors. The group uses modeling simulations based on SIMULIA Abaqus software for this work, to conserve costs and save time. However, when the group ran the simulations on individual desktop computers, the average computing job was so large that it took up to four days to complete. “We needed to reduce the amount of time that it took to run those jobs so that we could speed up the analysis and verification process and deliver better results more quickly to our industry colleagues,” says Yuichiro Aoki, Researcher for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Solution
In 2006, JAXA made its first investment in high-performance computing (HPC) when it deployed a small cluster based on the initial version of the Windows HPC Server operating system. “We chose Windows because our researchers already work comfortably in that environment,” says Aoki. “Plus, most numerical modeling and verification software is compatible with Windows, which meant that we could easily exchange data between the Windows-based cluster and our other systems.”
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Most numerical modeling and verification software is compatible with Windows, which meant that we could easily exchange data between the Windows-based cluster and our other systems. |
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Yuichiro Aoki
Researcher, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency |
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JAXA researchers were so pleased with the performance boost they experienced with the original cluster that the organization upgraded to the Windows HPC Server 2008 operating system in February 2010. The upgraded cluster comprises three compute nodes plus a head node, all of which are HP ProLiant DL160 server computers with quad-core Intel Xeon 5570 processors. As of June 2010, JAXA is conducting performance benchmarks on the upgraded cluster. “The initial results have been very good, which we expected,” says Aoki. “We’re quite satisfied with the performance of the Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster.” In fact, the organization plans to double the size of its cluster by the end of 2010 to take further advantage of accelerated processing capabilities.
JAXA has found that Abaqus software runs well on the Windows Server–based cluster. “Abaqus software provides complete analysis technologies with Windows HPC Server 2008 for both implicit and explicit finite element analyses, so we can achieve scalable simulations on wide range of aerospace applications made of advanced composite materials,” says Aoki.
To manage the system, Aoki accesses the head node through remote desktop functionality, making it easy for him to handle routine maintenance tasks. He also uses HPC Cluster Manager to monitor the job queue and check the progress of particular jobs. Researchers rely on the Windows HPC Server 2008 Job Scheduler to submit jobs and manage workflow processes.
Benefits
Embracing high-performance computing for its simulations has quickened the pace of research for JAXA and helped the organization better support Japanese aerospace companies and their goal of using composite materials for more fuel-efficient aircraft. “We’ve seen many benefits to using Windows HPC Server 2008 so far, and those benefits will only multiply as even more software companies focus on developing HPC computing solutions for the Windows platform,” says Aoki. For JAXA, a Windows-based cluster provides several important advantages.
Faster processing. JAXA has experienced considerably faster processing on its upgraded cluster than it did on the standalone computers, an increase due to a combination of hardware improvements, Abaqus software improvements, and the use of Windows HPC Server 2008. “We’ve dramatically reduced our processing time,” says Aoki. “Jobs that used to take four days to run now take just a single day. That means that we can share our results more quickly with the Japanese aerospace industry and further their efforts to design lighter, more advanced aircraft.”
Ease of use. With Windows HPC Server 2008, JAXA researchers can focus on their work, rather than worrying about learning how to use a new, unfamiliar operating system. “It can take a lot of time to conduct complex finite element evaluations and verification analyses,” says Aoki. “Using the Windows HPC Server 2008 cluster speeds up our processes without demanding extra time from researchers or drawing our concentration away from the research itself.”
Management simplicity. JAXA has avoided hiring an HPC specialist to handle system maintenance for the cluster because Windows HPC Server 2008 is so intuitive to manage. “I didn’t need any special training to care for the cluster,” says Aoki. “The built-in tools make maintenance really straightforward, and having a graphical user interface [GUI] is very convenient when it comes to tasks such as checking job status.”
Scalability. JAXA appreciates the flexibility that comes with its Windows-based cluster because there’s no limit to the number of nodes that it can deploy to help further the Japanese aerospace industry’s efforts. “We can and will easily increase our number of nodes as demand for computing power increases,” says Aoki. “With HPC increasing in popularity, more researchers are interested in using clusters to expedite their work.”
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