Import of Distributed Parameter Models into Lumped Parameter Model Libraries for the Example of Linearly Deformable Solid Bodies

Modelling of heterogeneous systems is always a trade-off between model complexity and accuracy. Most libraries of object-oriented, equation-based, multi-physical simulation tools are based on lumped parameter description models. However, there are different ways of including spatial dependency of certain variables in the model. One way that might be quite difficult is to manually discretize the model into an interconnection of lumped parameter models. This approach can get very time-consuming and is always sensitive to modelling or identification errors. To avoid these issues, we try to take advantage of the well-established methods for automatically discretizing a distributed parameter model for example by means of Finite Element methods. However, to achieve a suffiently good approximation, these methods very often result in large-scale dynamic systems that can not be handled within equation-based simulators. To overcome this drawback there exist different approaches within the literature. On the basis of deformable mechanical structures, one way of including distributed parameter models into libraries of lumped parameter models for the purpose of common simulation is pointed out in the present paper. For the implementation of the resulting models the authors take advantage of equation-based modelling libraries as new models can here easily be integrated.