Energy Conservation and Power Bonds in Co-Simulations: Non-Iterative Adaptive Step Size Control and Error Estimation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a non-iterative, energy-based adaptive step size control method for co-simulations that improves accuracy and efficiency by monitoring energy residuals, demonstrated on a quarter car benchmark.

Contribution

The paper presents ECCO, a novel energy-conservation-based co-simulation method that is non-iterative and enhances accuracy using energy residuals for adaptive step sizing.

Findings

Achieves up to 93% reduction in coupling errors

Operates without iterative procedures, saving computational time

Verifies effectiveness on a quarter car model with linear and nonlinear damping

Abstract

Here, we study the flow of energy between coupled simulators in a co-simulation environment using the concept of power bonds. We introduce energy residuals which are a direct expression of the coupling errors and hence the accuracy of co-simulation results. We propose a novel Energy-Conservation-based Co-Simulation method (ECCO) for adaptive macro step size control to improve accuracy and efficiency. In contrast to most other co-simulation algorithms, this method is non-iterative and only requires knowledge of the current coupling data. Consequently, it allows for significant speed ups and the protection of sensitive information contained within simulator models. A quarter car model with linear and nonlinear damping serves as a co-simulation benchmark and verifies the capabilities of the energy residual concept: Reductions in the errors of up to 93% are achieved at no additional computational cost.