Composition of numerical integrators in the HyFlow formalism
Fernando J. Barros · Winter Simulation Conference · 2018
The representation of complex Cyber-Physical Systems usually requires the ability to combine models described in different modeling formalisms and involving several numerical methods. While ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are a common formalism for representing continuous systems, their solution cannot be efficiently and accurately accomplished by a single numerical integrator. A plethora of methods have been developed to tackle several issues including efficiency, accuracy, and stiffness. Given the variety of methods, a common representation to enable their interoperability is still a major research challenge. In this paper, we introduce the Hybrid Flow System Specification formalism (HyFlow) as a general framework for describing numerical integrators in a modular form. Each numerical method is represented as a particular model in the formalism. Co-simulation is then enabled, since all HyFlow models can be composed by design. In this paper, we show examples demonstrating the co-simulation of geometric, pulse, and exponential numerical integrators.