Partitioned Simulation of Fluid Power Systems—an Approach for Reduced Communication between Processors

Abstract

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 processors. Fluid power systems are characterized by a transport delay in the pipelines connecting physical components, which allows component models to be decoupled; this leads to simulations involving frequent interprocessor communication and low computational performance. This paper describes a method that enables faster simulations by reducing the communication bottleneck. By adjusting the line impedance it is possible to use a larger time step for the communication between processors than 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 reductions in run time without compromising accuracy.