Multi-physics model verification based on the law of energy conservation

In model based development (MBD) of the automobile industry, it is necessary to create a model including multiple physical characteristics. Integration testing of such models is not easy because of its cross-sectional development. In this paper, we propose an integration test method based on the law of energy conservation for multi-physics model. The proposed method is consisted of two steps. The first step is a model hierarchical representation considering the type of energy. The second step is an energy flow diagram based on the hierarchized model. In addition, by creating a model verification tool based on the proposed method, model verification becomes partially automatic. Through the numerical experiments, we show that the proposed method and verification tools have the possibility of judging whether the model is normal or not. In the numerical experiments, we use a model that is developed via MATLAB/Simlink®, MapleSim®, and IPG-CarMaker®. © 2019 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.