Dynamic Simulation with Simulink

by J Grant

You can simulate a model Interactively in the Simulink Editor using the Run button on the toolbar. The Run button also appears in tools within the Simulink Editor. You can simulate from any tool that includes the button, such as the Scope viewer. Before you start a simulation, you can specify options like simulation start time, stop time, and the solver for solving the model. You specify these options in the Configuration Parameters dialog box, which you can open from the Simulation menu or using the Model Configuration Parameters button on the toolbar. These settings are saved with the model in a configuration set. You can create multiple configuration sets for each model and switch between them to see the effects of different settings. After you set your model configuration parameters, you can start the simulation. You can pause, resume, and stop simulation using toolbar controls. You can also simulate more than one model at a time, so you can start another simulation while one is running. During simulation, you cannot make changes to the structure of the model, such as adding or deleting lines or blocks. However, you can make these changes while a simulation is running: Modify some configuration parameters, including the stop time and the m�ximum step size or Modify the parameters of a block, as long as you do not cause a change in: Number of states, inputs, or outputs; Sample time; Number of zero crossings; Vector length of any block parameters; Length of the internal block work vectors and Dimension of any signals You can also examine the model visually as it simulates. For example, you can click a line to see the signal carried on that line on a Floating Scope or Display block. In Simulink Project, you can search inside all your models and supporting files. You can find matches inside model files, MATLAB files, and other project files such as PDF and Microsoft Word files. You search only the current project. If you want to search referenced project files, open the referenced project. In the Simulink Project Files and Dependency Analysis views, and in the Custom Task dialog box, you can use the search box and filtering tools to specify file display. You simulate a dynamic system by computing its states at successive time steps over a specified time span. This computation uses information provided by a model of the system. The time steps are time intervals when the computation happens. The size of this time interval is called the step size. The process of computing the states of a model in this manner is known as solving the model. No single method of solving a model applies to all systems. Simulink provides a set of programs called solvers. Each solver embodies a particular approach to solving a model. You can programmatically simulate a model with the sim function, using various techniques to specify parameter values. In addition to simulation using the sim function, these examples show you how to enable simulation timeouts, capture simulation errors, and access simulation metadata when your simulation is complete. For workflows that involve multiple parallel simulations and logging of large amounts of data, you can create simulation sets by using an array of Simulink.SimulationInput objects. This is useful in scenarios like model testing, experiment design, Monte Carlo analysis, and model optimization. Simulink Scope blocks and Scope viewers offer a quick and lightweight way to visualize your simulation data over time. If you are prototyping a model design, you can attach signals to a Scope block. After simulating the model, you can use the results to validate your design. The Simulation Data Inspector enables you to inspect and compare time series data at multiple stages of your workflow.

304 pages, Paperback

Published March 6, 2018