Libraries of reusable models: Theory and application

Setting up a simulation model is more than writing down state equations and running them on a computer. A lot of conceptual information about the physics and engineering aspects of the system must be taken into account to to construct a useful simulation model. The role of a model library is to manage this information and to make model fragments reusable. This is especially important if models are reused and shared in cooperative work groups. In this article, we discuss the architecture of a library of reusable models. The practical application is demonstrated by reviewing an actual modeling problem in the machine tool domain.