Functional Mock-Up Unit (FMU)

System Coupling supports the use of co-simulation Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs) as coupling participants.

Note:

Currently, model exchange FMUs are not supported.
FMU-based coupling participants are referred to as "co-simulation slaves" in the FMI documentation.

When an FMU is integrated as a coupling participant, it:

serves as a container for a third-party function or physics code, and
communicates with System Coupling through the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) library routines.

Unlike other co-simulation participants, FMU participants are integrated into System Coupling using the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI). Only the FMI 2.0 standard is supported. Participant capabilities are accessed by System Coupling coupled analyses via an FMU. An FMU is a file provided from an external tool that supports FMI for co-simulation.

Both types of participant interact with System Coupling in very similar ways and share many of the same coupling-specific properties in the System Coupling data model. However, FMU participants also have a number of capabilities and behaviors that are significantly different from those of Ansys participants. For more information, see Differences between FMU and Ansys Participants.

Important: This documentation assumes that you have some familiarity with co-simulation FMUs and can produce an FMU 2.0 file suitable for use in a System Coupling coupled analysis. For detailed information, see:

FMI Functional Mock-up Interface: https://fmi-standard.org
Functional Mock-up Interface for Model Exchange and Co-Simulation: https://svn.modelica.org/fmi/branches/public/specifications/v2.0/FMI_for_ModelExchange_and_CoSimulation_v2.0.pdf

For more information on FMU co-simulation participants, see:

Differences between FMU and Ansys Participants

FMU participants differ from Ansys participants in the following ways:

FMU input/output variables and parameters are restricted to single scalar values and do not have quantity types.
Regarding data model settings:
- For co-simulations involving an FMU participant, the CouplingInterface singleton does not include MappingControl settings.
- FMU participants have CouplingParticipant settings that are significantly different from those of Ansys participants. For details, see FMU CouplingParticipant Data Model Settings.

Supported System Coupling Functionality

System Coupling supports the following functionality for FMU participants:

The following table lists the key coupling capabilities available for System Coupling and FMU Participants in the graphical user interface (GUI), System Coupling's command-line interface (CLI), and System Coupling in Workbench (WB).

Table 9: FMU Participants and System Coupling Capabilities