.StreamConnectors.Components.MIMO .StreamConnectors.Components.MIMOIt is often tempting to construct ad hoc thermo-hydraulic MIMO blocks for splitting/mixing mass flows, scaling a pressure or otherwise manipulating a number of fluid streams. Here it is important to distinguish between physical and non-physical models.
Physical MIMO models will typically be enclosed models containing well-known physical components such as valves, pumps, mixing volumes and sensors and controllers. The controllers will actuate the valves, pumps etc. to obtain the goal of the MIMO block, e.g. splitting a stream in a fixed ratio. Using physical component models will also imply that flows are driven by pressure differences, pressure differences can be created by pumps and that added heat will be driven by temperature differences.
When one connects the physical MIMO model to pressure or mass flow boundary components (sources/sinks if you like) the simulated system will only work with physically reasonable boundary values.
Often, one wants to obtain a simple goal such as splitting an ingoing mass flow by 40/60 % on two outgoing flows and only few equations are needed for this. However, when you add a constraining equation in a splitter model, e.g. m_flow_b = 0.4*m_flow_a, the additional equation will over-constrain the component model and you ask yourself the question: "which other equation should I remove?".
This sub-package contains examples of forced splitting and splitting/mixing MIMO components implemented both with physical components and non-physical equations.
The non-physical components can only be used with certain source/sink configurations since their mass flows are not related to the pressure drop. Hence, mass flow sources are applied to the upstream connectors whereas pressure sinks are applied to the downstream connectors.
The physical components assume a positive pressure drop to drive the mass flow. That way it is sufficient to control the flow with a valve. Otherwise, one should implement both a controlled pump and a valve to be able to handle pressure increase across the component.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
 ForcedSplixing_nonPhysical | Forced splitting/mixing using non-physical equations |
 ForcedSplixing_physical | Forced splitting/mixing using physical components |
 ForcedSplitting_nonPhysical | Forced splitting using non-physical equations |
 ForcedSplitting_physical | Forced splitting using physical components |