Question

Just starting with Modelica and having trouble understanding how it works.

In the below ‘method’ of the model, qInflow and qOutflow are used in the second line to evaluate der(h), but they have not received a value yet! (they were not defined in the ‘data’ of the method)? In what order is the code executed.

equation
 assert(minV >= 0, "minV must be greater or equal to zero");
 der(h)=(qInflow - qOutflow)/area;
 qInflow=if time > 150 then 3*flowLevel else flowLevel;
 qOutflow=Functions.LimitValue(minV, maxV, -flowGain*outCtr);
 error=ref - h;
 der(x)=error/T;
 outCtr=K*(error + x);
end FlatTank;      

From http://www.mathcore.com/resources/documents/ie_tank_system.pdf

Answer 1

This is an understandable point of confusion when coming from languages and systems that utilize imperative semantics. But Modelica doesn’t work like that.

When working with Modelica it is important to understand that an equation section contains equations, not assignments. Consider this, if I gave you the following equations:

x + y = 3;
x + 2*y = 5;

If you understand that this is a mathematical context, you can then determine that x must have a value of 1 and y must have a value of 2. In other words, you have to solve a system of simultaneous equations. You’ll note that the left hand side of these equations are not variables (in general), they are expressions. An equation is simply a relationship that equates one expression, on the left hand side, with another expression, on the right hand side. Furthermore, this relationship is always true and so order is irrelevant.

This is quite different from imperative programming languages with imperative semantics. But it is also very powerful because you can state these relationships (linear systems of equations, non-linear systems of equations, implicit equations, etc) and the compiler will work out the most efficient way to solve them.

Getting back to your example, when you look at the code in your question you are interpreting those equations as assignment statements. This notion is reinforced because they just happen to have variables on the left hand sides. But they are really equations. In an equation based system, you do not worry about whether a given variable has been assigned to previously. Instead, the requirement is simply that for every variable there exists (somewhere) an equation and that there are no extra equations. In other words, you should have the same number of variables as unknowns and that the system of equations has a unique solution. That is all that Modelica requires.

Now, Modelica supports the kind of imperative semantics you are used to. But they are only to be used in special cases because they constrain the interpretation of the mathematical behavior in such a way that it interferes with the symbolic manipulation that allows Modelica compilers to generate really fast code. So it is more than a question of style. You should use equations if at all possible and algorithms in Modelica should only be used as a last resort.

One last note. Some people may be wondering “Are you telling me that these equations will be put into some giant system of equations and solved by matrix inversion or Newton-Raphson or something? Why make it so complicated when it could obviously be solved in a much easier way!” But it will not be solved as a giant system of equations. If it can be solved as a simple set of assignments it will. That is one (among many) of the different symbolic manipulation techniques that will be applied. In fact, this is a key point about Modelica…you don’t need to worry about optimizing the solution method, the tool will take care of that. And more importantly, if you connect components in such a way that a simultaneous system does arise, you don’t need to worry about that either. Modelica tools can handle such “algebraic loops” for you, they will optimize it to find the most computationally efficient formulation and won’t depend on you reformulating your model for those cases.

Does that help?