Simscape (MATLAB/Simulink)

Simscape is a MATLAB toolbox for the simulation of electrical power systems. It is based on the Simscape toolbox and uses the Simscape language to describe the system. It can be installed via the MATLAB Add-Ons menu.

Software

Name	Description
MATLAB	Programming/Scripting language with focus on mathematical equations
Simulink	Graphical programming environment for MATLAB
Simscape	Extension of the MATLAB Engine to add new domains and components to MATLAB
Simscape Electrical	Simscape add-on for electrical components

GDF → Simscape

Creates a Simscape model from a GDF file. The following components are currently supported:

Bus
Load
TLine
IEEEST1A
IEEEPSS1A
IEEEG1
2-winding-transformer
3-winding-transformer

Adding New Components

Prerequesites:

GDF component is already implemented

Steps:

Add the Simscape block path to the SimscapeBlockType enum in epowcore/simscape/shared.py
Add the port handle mapping to the PORT_HANDLES dictionary in epowcore/simscape/port_handles.py
Implement Simscape block creation and parameter setting
- Add a module in epowcore/simscape/components for the new component
Add the new creation function to __create_components() in export.py
If used in a subsystem template, add the parameter setter to insert_subsystem_template() in subsystem_helper.py

Connections

Connections between components are represented by lines. Lines are identified by their LineHandles and can be connected to multiple components.

The mapping from GDF port names to Simscape ports is done with the Simscape.PortHandles configuration dictionary. It uses a Component class as key to map the GDF port names to the Simscape port handles consisting of name, start (index) and length.

The common port names in Simscape are Outport and Inport for data signals and LConn and RConn for electrical ports.

This mapping can be accessed via the ConfigManager.get_specific_porthandles(block_type, port_name) function.

Example:

# Scenario: An edge connecting an IEEEST1A component is labeled with "Out".
PortHandles[IEEEST1A] = {"In": {...}, "Out": {...}}
PortHandles[IEEEST1A]["Out"] = {name: "Outport", start: 0, length: 1}

# Access with ConfigManager
ConfigManager.get_specific_porthandles(SimscapeBlockType.IEEEST1A, "Out") => PortHandles("Outport", 0,1)

Subsystems

Warning

Whole section is outdated!

Subsystems are used to group components together. The subsystem.insert_subsystem function can create a subsystem from a template, meaning an existing model or subsystem in a model.

Variant Subsystems are also supported, allowing similar subsystems to be created from a single template. The relevant variant is selected via the variant label.

The extra_params dictionary can be used to further modify the subsystem. The keys are relative to the subsystem, e.g. {'IEEEST1A.R' : 0.1} will set the R parameter of the IEEEST1A component in the subsystem. The lower_subsystem_variant_labels parameter can be used to modify the variant labels of subsystems within the subsystem. This even works for Variant Subsystems multiple layers deep.

Simscape → GDF

Not implemented.

Note

For testing of the exporter, methods to get the connections between Simscape components were evaluated. Using the SrcBlockHandle and DstBlockHandle methods proved to be unreliable as no result is provided when the connected line has more than two connections. Reading the LineHandles from a given component and checking the Points property of the lines for overlap proved to be more reliable, but is still not perfect.