Illustrated Guidelines for Modelling and Dynamic Simulation of Linear and Non-Linear Deterministic Engineering Systems

This chapter presented guidelines and recommendations for modelling of various engineering systems. These guidelines are unique in the sense that the basic concepts are illustrated with a selection of provocatively simple study cases, all examples are massively illustrated with detailed diagrams and working annotated MATLAB scripts, enabling simulation, static representation of results and even animations, using advanced computer graphics. The high efficiency of several key techniques and methods were presented, including state-space formulation and finite element method. The state-space formulation enables us to access powerful solvers of the ordinary differential equations. And the FEM allows to reduce huge class of problems, described with partial differential equations to the ordinary differential equations. The main intent of this work was to show that with use of modern simulation tools and computer environments, modelling and simulation process of complex systems is amazingly accessible. A uniform and universal recommended process is equally applicable to both linear and non-linear systems and allows comparison of linear and non-linear models and verification of the adopted assumptions. With a wide spectrum of the presented examples, related to the mechanical, aerospace, civil, electrical, environmental and other engineering areas, it is believed that presented modelling and simulation guidelines will be useful for a very wide audience, including engineers, scientists, students and enthusiasts of science and technology.