Dymola & Physical Simulation: The 90 second guide …
Physical simulation is all about representing on a computer an event that would happen in reality if you created the same thing.
The principal idea behind physical simulation is to reduce trial and error (and therefore time and cost) when developing a product. Prototypes and testing are expensive so the vision is for simulation to replace them or at least reduce their usage just to confirmation testing.
With a good simulation tool you can spend more time optimising a design so that its simply better. Simulation allows you to investigate and measure things that would be impossible or very dangerous to evaluate in reality.
Simulation therefore free’s engineers to innovate by giving them a development environment that is:
- fast,
- repeatable and
- safe.
Thus, with a good simulation tool you can save development time and money, whilst at the same time improving product performance and reliability.
Plus, while you are making these savings your engineering team is actually gaining a deeper understanding of your products with knowledge that can be applied now and on future projects.
Industries that have pioneered the use of physical simulation tools are Automotive, Motorsports and Aerospace . However simulation is just as relevant to all engineering industries.
Dymola is Next Generation Simulation Technology
Dymola is unique because it enables you to simulate different physical components extremely efficiently and within one software product.
The physical domains that can be simulated include:
- Mechanical (inc full multi-body simulation),
- Control systems (equivalent to Matlab/Simulink),
- Hydraulics,
- Pneumatics and
- Electrical systems (including batteries, power electronics etc).
Traditionally different departments within an engineering organisation have been responsible for these different areas and have all used there own favourite simulation software. This causes significant problems when teams are required to share models, data and information. Within the Dymola environment this problem is solved assharing models, data and information is seemless; due to all the domains being contained within one simulation platform.
Typically you might think this catch-all approach would lead to a loss of fidelity, accuracy or detail in the models. In fact the opposite is true.
The major benefit of Dymola over any other simulation code is that it uses an open standard approach that means all the fundamental equations and assumptions are visible to the engineer. Normally software companies encrypt this side of things so you can never be sure what equations and assumptions are been used. This often leads to immense frustration for the engineers and lots of wasted time trying to work out what is going on. With Dymola not only are things open but if the engineer doesn’t agree with the assumptions or approach being taken engineers can make modifications, extend or re-use what is given to them.
Added value provided by Dymola:
- a user friendly interface,
- the library’s of pre-developed models,
- efficient simulations – suitable for Hardware (or driver) in the loop development
The way Dymola uses advanced mathematical techniques to make fast, high accuracy simulations is class leading.
A published study by Ford showed a 90% reduction in equations (from 250,000 to 25,000) leading to very fast simulation times and no loss of fidelity, accuracy or outputs. This enables extremely complex and detailed models, that have traditionally taken a long time to solve, to be solved quickly and thus making them suitable for HIL and design optimisation applications.
In the past, engineers needed to maintain a number of simulation models for different purposes. With Dymola they only have to maintain one model because it will be suitable for all applications – it really is the next generation of simulation technology here today.
Price
Dymola offers all the capabilities of a number of different software packages (and more) in just the one solution. We believe this makes Dymola extremely good value for money and led one customer to recently called it “the simulation product of the moment“.
If you would like a quote or need any more information, please contact us here.
