Institute of Engineering and Computational Mechanics
Mechatronics
Simulator coupling for mechatronic systems
Project Description
Simulation of complex engineering systems requires modeling of
components from different engineering fields, e.g. mechanics, automatic control and
electronics. In general, the global system has to be decomposed into subsystems
due to the different engineering disciplines using engineering intuition to
treat it efficiently by a team of engineers. The simulation of the global system
is realized by a time discrete linker and scheduler which combines the inputs
and outputs of the corresponding subsystems and establishes communication
between the subsystems to discrete time instants.
The input-output
description allows a dynamical analysis without knowledge of the internal structure of
the system resulting in the well known ``black-box'' of the
global system only by means of the input and the output terminals. Since the internal
structure of a subsystem is independent of the global system structure, this
approach supports in particular interchangeability and reusability of system blocks.
Due to the modular description of systems independent modeling
of the internal dynamics of each subsystem is sufficient.
Coupling of the corresponding simulation tools provides a system to be simulated
by different
programs avoiding the disadvantages of a block simulator. Although
standard solvers can be used for each subsystem, numerical problems
arise from the coupling of the solvers. It is shown, that zero-stability
for non-iterative simulator coupling is only guaranteed, if algebraic loops do
not exist within the systems. Otherwise, instability of the modular
simulation may occur. An iterative simulator coupling method opens a systematic
and accurate way to combine simulation tools.
Publications
Kübler, Ralf:
Modulare Modellierung und Simulation mechatronischer Systeme,
Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 20, Nr. 327. Düsseldorf: VDI, 2000.
Rükgauer, Andreas:
Modulare Simulation mechatronischer Systeme mit Anwendung in der Fahrzeugdynamik,
Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 20, Nr. 248. Düsseldorf: VDI, 1997.