| SimPowerSystems | |
| What Is SimPowerSystems? |
An overview of product features and capabilities |
| Using This Guide |
How to find help in this user's guide |
| Units |
Physical units used in SimPowerSystems |
| About the Authors |
Blockset and documentation authors from Hydro-Québec and other institutions |
| Related Products |
Products you might want to use with SimPowerSystems |
| Typographical Conventions |
Summary of special fonts and notations |
What Is SimPowerSystems?
Starting with MathWorks Release 13, the Power System Blockset has been renamed to SimPowerSystems. As a part of the Physical Modeling family, SimPowerSystems and SimMechanics work together with Simulink to model electrical, mechanical, and control systems.
Electrical power systems are combinations of electrical circuits and electromechanical devices like motors and generators. Engineers working in this discipline are constantly improving the performance of the systems. Requirements for drastically increased efficiency have forced power system designers to use power electronic devices and sophisticated control system concepts that tax traditional analysis tools and techniques. Further complicating the analyst's role is the fact that the system is often so nonlinear that the only way to understand it is through simulation.
Land-based power generation from hydroelectric, steam, or other devices is not the only use of power systems. A common attribute of these systems is their use of power electronics and control systems to achieve their performance objectives.
SimPowerSystems was designed to provide a modern design tool that will allow scientists and engineers to rapidly and easily build models that simulate power systems. SimPowerSystems uses the Simulink® environment, allowing a model to be built using simple click and drag procedures. Not only can you draw the circuit topology rapidly, but your analysis of the circuit can include its interactions with mechanical, thermal, control, and other disciplines. This is possible because all the electrical parts of the simulation interact with the extensive Simulink modeling library. Since Simulink uses MATLAB® as the computational engine, designers can also use MATLAB toolboxes and Simulink blocksets.
Users can rapidly put SimPowerSystems to work. The libraries contain models of typical power equipment such as transformers, lines, machines, and power electronics. These models are proven ones coming from textbooks, and their validity is based on the experience of the Power Systems Testing and Simulation Laboratory of Hydro-Québec, a large North American utility located in Canada. The capabilities of SimPowerSystems for modeling a typical electrical grid are illustrated in demonstration files. And for users who want to refresh their knowledge of power system theory, there are also self-learning case studies.
| Using This Guide | |