PARTITIONED SIMULATION OF FLUID-POWER SYSTEMS - AN APPROACH FOR REDUCED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PROCESSORS

Parallel simulation of fluid power systems using the transmission line modelling method offers the benefit of increased speed of execution, but requires the system model to be partitioned on to individual proce ssors. Fluid power systems are characterized by a transport delay in t he pipelines connecting physical components, which allows component mo dels to be decoupled; this leads to simulations involving frequent int erprocessor communication and low computational performance. This pape r describes a method that enables faster simulations by reducing the c ommunication bottleneck. By adjusting the line impedance it is possibl e to use a larger time step for the communication between processors t han the global time step. This approach requires a new filter for the approximation of frequency-dependent friction. Potential gains and the accuracy of the method are estimated. A hydraulic example circuit is partitioned in two subsystems and the new scheme leads to valuable red uctions in run rime without compromising accuracy.