Guidelines for enabling modular simulations according to signal-based subsystem modelling

The implementation of a modular system development approach offers great opportunities for distributed modelling and analysis of mechatronic systems. Signal-flow based subsystem models are frequently used for this purpose, especially within Co-Simulation scenarios. They are usually masked such that sharing the model is possible without granting access to internal details of the implementation. However, this lack of knowledge about the internal structure of a model can lead to modelling mistakes: especially problems originating from neglected energy exchange between models can happen. Such problems can be avoided if physical interaction based models are used for defining the interfaces of the models. This contribution highlights typically occuring problems according to modular system simulation leading to modelling guidelines, demonstrated on a simple theoretical example.