Aspects on simulation of switched bond graphs

By mode-switching systems we mean physical systems characterized by transitions which are at least an order of magnitude faster than the overall time-scale. There are essentially two different ways to model such systems for simulation. One is to employ continuous models and stiff solvers. This approach is becoming more feasible as more sophisticated stiff solvers become available, but still suffers from poor performance for larger models. An alternative approach is to employ hybrid models with instantaneous transitions between continuous mode-models. In this case solvers capable of detecting zero-crossings are required. The advantage of this approach is an improved simulation performance but the disadvantage is that one has to deal with more complex models. To handle the model complexity matter we have previously proposed switched bond graphs as a solution. Employing switched bond graphs, the problem of complex models is modified to the problem of translating the bond graph to a computational model. This is the problem addressed here.