Functional digital mock-up - more insight to complex multi-physical systems

Digital Mock-up (DMU) is a widely introduced technology for investigating geometrical and mechanical properties of mechanical systems. A substantial extension of DMU is presented in this paper: the so-called Functional Digital Mock-up (FDMU) approach. This approach is a combination of traditional DMU and behavioural simulation. It realizes an integration of geometrical properties and functional aspects. Hence, this approach leads to a considerably more insight into properties of multiphysical systems containing mechanical subsystems, e.g. mechatronic systems. The key point of FDMU is the possible interaction between visualization and numerical simulation in both directions. This way, simulation results are shown in a 3D scene as well as the user is able to intervene into an active simulation run. Communication between visualization and simulation is carried out by a Master Simulator. This Master Simulator is also capable to govern the communication between different simulation tools if needed. Hence, more than one simulation tool can be incorporated in order to solve a simulation issue. A prototypic FDMU framework is available up to now. The paper introduces the components of this framework and illustrates the approach via an application example.