Import data from a spreadsheet

In this example, temporal evolutions of physical quantities, stored in an Excel® file, is imported and "replayed" in Simcenter Amesim. This corresponds to the process described in figure Figure 1. The goal can be to compare simulation results with real measurements, to reproduce some mission profiles or to include data coming from real sensors in your model. For this purpose, the SIGUDA01 submodel from the Signal, Control Library will be used. It is assumed that one of the columns of the Excel® file is the time column, see below:

Figure 38: Excel file containing time evolutions

Note

Note that for this example, the time values need to form a strictly monotic sequence: T0 < T1 < ... < Tn.

Procedure

1. In Sketch mode, select the Dynamic time table component and place it on the sketch by setting the right number of outputs (two in this example). This component is associated with the above-mentioned SIGUDA01 submodel. Connect its port to a signal sink.

2. In Parameter mode, click the Table Editor from the editable parameter group of the Dynamic time table component.

Figure 39: SIGUDA01 parametrization

3. Select the XYs table format. With only one output, you would choose the 1D table format instead. The Table Editor opens.

4. Start the Data Import from the Table Editor's file menu as described in figure Figure 5. Browse your files and open your Excel® file. As you see, all the tabs present in the Excel® file are visible in the Data Import.

Figure 40: Multiple sheets display in the Data Import

5. In this example, a "titles row" and a "units row" can be defined right away from existing lines:

Figure 41: Titles and units based on existing rows

6. Finalize the selection of your data values, click the OK button and save your table. Your data is transferred to the Table Editor where you can visualize it. As the goal is to replay the imported time evolutions as they are, no processing is done here. See the Table Editor manual for more details on possible data processing operations.

Figure 42: Imported Data transferred to the Table Editor as XY table

7. Click the Table Editor's Apply button. Your table is automatically defined as a parameter of the SIGUDA01 submodel:

8. Select the appropriate numbers for columns in the SIGUDA01 submodel (in this example, the first column is the time):

9. In Simulation mode, set your final time in accordance with the last time instant of your file and start the simulation. Results can be visualized in the figure below. They should be completely equivalent to the data shown in figure Figure 42.

Figure 43: Measurements "replayed" in Simcenter Amesim

Results

Note

Note that instead of sending these "replayed" signals to a sink, it can be very interesting to use them as inputs to any of the signal to physics components of the various libraries of Simcenter Amesim.