Enhancing the computational power of a general-purpose computer laboratory through a Beowulf cluster using OpenFOAM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18265/2447-9187a2025id8918Palavras-chave:
Beowulf cluster, CFD, computational infrastructure, OpenFOAM, resource optimizationResumo
In the context of education and research in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), the high costs associated with software licenses, dedicated hardware, and cloud-based simulation services create significant barriers for smaller universities and emerging research groups. At the same time, general-purpose computer laboratories, often used for undergraduate teaching, tend to be underutilized, leading to inefficient use of institutional resources. This study assesses the viability and performance of a Beowulf-type cluster built with OpenFOAM to simulate a real-world engineering problem: steady-state, external, incompressible airflow over a motorcyclist in a wind tunnel. The cluster was assembled from sixty general-purpose desktop computers located in an undergraduate teaching laboratory. A speedup factor of 55 was achieved by combining the sixty machines, allowing simulations with a mesh of 64 million cells. RAM usage stayed below 1 GB per machine, making it feasible to share the infrastructure between research and regular classroom activities. The findings indicate that setting up a Beowulf cluster in such an environment can significantly increase computational capacity while reducing idle time and maximizing the return on institutional investment in computing resources.
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