On Meeting Energy Balance Errors in Co-Simulations

The term co-simulation denotes the coupling of some simulation tools for dynamical systems into one big system by having them exchange data at points of a fixed time grid and extrapolating the received data into the interval, while none of the steps is repeated for iteration. From the global perspective, the simulation thus has a strong explicit component. Frequently, among the data passed across subsystem boundaries there are flows of conserved quantities, and as there is no iteration of steps, system-wide balances may not be fulfilled: the system is not solved as one monolithic equation system. If these balance errors accumulate, simulation results become inaccurate. Balance correction methods which compensate these errors by adding corrections for the balances to the signal in the next coupling time step have been considered in past research. But establishing the balance of one quantity a posteriori due to the time delay in general cannot establish the balances of quantities that depend on the exchanged quantities, usually energy. In most applications from physics, the balance of energy is equivalent to stability. In this paper, a method is presented which allows users to choose the quantity that should be balanced to be that energy, and to accurately balance it. This establishes also numerical stability for many classes of stable problems.