In today’s world of engineering, products are more complex than ever. Think about a modern smartphone: it has electronic circuits, software, mechanical parts, and generates heat. Designing such a system using only one type of simulation software is often impossible. This is where co-simulation becomes a game-changer, and the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) standard is leading the way.
The Challenge: Simulating Connected Systems
Traditionally, engineers might simulate an electronic circuit in one program and a mechanical system in another. Combining the results manually is slow and prone to errors. Real-world systems don’t operate in isolation—the electronics affect the mechanics, which affect the thermal performance, and so on. We need a way for these different simulation tools to \”talk\” to each other in real-time during a virtual test. That’s the core idea behind multi-domain simulation.
FMI: The Universal Translator for Simulation Tools
The FMI standard acts as a universal translator. It’s a free, open standard that allows different simulation programs to connect and exchange data. The key component is called a Functional Mock-up Unit (FMU). An FMU is like a sealed black box—it contains a model from one tool (e.g., a circuit or a mechanical assembly) that can be safely imported and used inside another tool without revealing its internal secrets, protecting intellectual property.
Major Siemens EDA tools like HyperLynx AMS (for detailed analog/mixed-signal circuit analysis) and PartQuest Explore (for cloud-based system architecture exploration) now support FMI. This means they can seamlessly work with hundreds of other FMI-compatible tools across various engineering fields.
Real-World Examples of FMI Co-Simulation in Action
1. Electromechanical System: Lifting a Weight with a Motor
Imagine a system where an electronic circuit drives a stepper motor to lift and lower a weight. The electrical part was designed in HyperLynx AMS. This model was exported as an FMU and plugged into Simcenter Amesim, a powerful tool for mechanical simulation. In Amesim, the model included gears and a winch attached to the weight.
During co-simulation, the electrical signals from HyperLynx AMS controlled the motor in the Amesim model, which then physically moved the weight. The tools exchanged data every millisecond, creating a unified simulation. The interface blocks in each tool made the connection simple.
The final results showed the coordinated motion exactly as planned.
2. Control System: Stabilizing a Power Converter
Control systems are vital for keeping things like power supply voltages stable. In this example, a voltage converter was modeled in HyperLynx AMS, but it needed a smart controller to manage its output.
The controller was designed in a different tool called Twin Activate. This controller was exported as an FMU and dropped directly into the HyperLynx AMS schematic, completing the feedback loop. Because this simulation needed to capture very fast changes, the tools exchanged data every microsecond.
The co-simulation successfully showed how the controller reacted to sudden changes in the electrical load, keeping the output voltage steady.
3. Thermal Analysis: Simulating Smartphone Heating
How does your phone heat up when streaming a video or playing a game? This requires combining electrical power analysis with advanced thermal (heat flow) simulation. For this, PartQuest Explore was connected with Simcenter Flotherm, a specialized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool for cooling electronics.
A detailed 3D model of a smartphone circuit board was created in Flotherm.
In PartQuest Explore, an electrical model simulated different phone usage states: idling, streaming video, and gaming. Each state caused the phone’s chips (processor, memory, etc.) to draw different amounts of power. This power data, sent to Flotherm every 100 milliseconds, acted as the \”heat source.\”
Flotherm then calculated how that heat spread through the phone’s components and case. The results clearly showed temperature spikes during gaming and streaming, providing crucial data for thermal management design.
Key Benefits and Best Practices for FMI Co-Simulation
The power of FMI co-simulation lies in letting each engineering tool do what it does best, while seamlessly integrating into a larger system model. It breaks down barriers between engineering disciplines. However, setting it up requires attention to detail. The most critical setting is the communication time-step—how often the tools exchange data. Choose a time-step that is small enough for accuracy but large enough to keep the simulation runtime practical. If results look wrong, adjusting this time-step is the first step in troubleshooting.
Conclusion: A Unified Future for System Design
FMI co-simulation is transforming how complex products are designed and validated. By enabling tools like HyperLynx AMS and PartQuest Explore to work with a vast ecosystem of simulation software, Siemens is helping engineers create more reliable, higher-performance systems faster. It allows for earlier and more accurate analysis of interactions between electronics, software, mechanics, and thermal effects—all before a physical prototype is ever built.
To dive deeper into implementing multi-domain simulation with FMI in your workflow, explore the resources available on the official FMI standard website and Siemens EDA support channels.
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