Practical use of the Sense internal variables feature

The recommended workflow for sensing some of a component's internal variables is given hereafter.

To sense internal variables from a given component, proceed as follows:

Procedure

1. Disconnect your component through a double-click on it in Sketch mode

2. Move it away from its initial location to some free space on your sketch.

3. Select the internal variables you want to sense.

4. Whenever possible, recreate some space at your component's initial location, move your component back into place and reconnect it to its surrounding elements.

5. Connect the signal ports that have been added to your component's icon to other Simcenter Amesim components.

Results

This workflow is especially suitable for already existing models which contain a lot of components and on which you want to apply some controls afterwards. It is also preferable if you need to sense many variables.

An alternative workflow without component disconnection can be used if you want to sense only a few internal variables, or if you want to keep existing connections:

You can start the previous workflow at step 3 (selection of sensed variables). As step 4 is no longer necessary, you just have to connect the newly added ports to other components (step 5).

Note

You may have to reorganize existing line connections or move some components that overlap.

Remark on algebraic loops

Sensing internal variables and reusing them in the Simcenter Amesim model, typically in a control loop, can generate algebraic loops (for instance if there are no dynamics in the control loop, e.g. pure gain controller). See the Performance Analyzer manual for more information on algebraic loops.

Remark on Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs)

Sensing internal variables of an FMU's import submodel is supported but there is no guarantee that these internal variables coming from third-party models were designed for this purpose.