Modelling & Simulation – Software

• 1. Proteus and Pspice

• 2. OrCAD
• 3. Xilinx
• 4. Keil
• 5. ETAP
• 6. PSCAD
• 7. AutoCAD Electrical
• 8. PLC Programming
• 9. SCADA Software
• 10. AC/DC Drive Software
• 11. PSIM
• 12. MATLAB/SIMULINK
Modelling & Simulation – Software
• The modelling and simulation software, which are frequently used in
electrical engineering design are discussed in the following:

• 1. Proteus and Pspice:

• The proteus software are a very important software in which we
can design the circuit and check the output.
• This software is mostly used by electronics engineers to simulate
circuits.
• In this software, any circuit can be designed, e.g., regulated power
supply, digital circuits, etc.
• Same to proteus, PSpice software is also available in the market to
perform the same simulation functions.
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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.

• 2. OrCAD:
• This software is also used in many industries for drawing
electronic circuit schematics, the framework of providing
visual stimulation and routing, drawing, designing printed
circuit boards.
• Many iPhones has design drafted using OrCAD software.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.

• 3. Xilinx:
• This software is most useful for electronics engineers and
as well as electrical for implementing Verilog code, this is
also useful for VLSI designing.
• This software used to implement the digital circuit in the
EPGA kit.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.

• 4. Keil:
• This software is useful to build projects related to the
embedded system.
• To put in software in a micro-controller, this tool is used
where a code can be written and then simulated.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 5. ETAP: The ETAP stands for Electrical Transient and
Analysis Program. This software is used for design
simulation, automation, and operation of distribution,
generation, and industrial power systems. This software
can simulate your system and calculate for all electrical
quantities such as currents, faults, voltage drops, etc to
validate your electrical design. It is also used for solar
system analysis.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 6. PSCAD: The PSCAD stands for power system
computer-aided design software used to simulate and
design an electrical power system in Commercial and
industrial buildings. The application of this software is in
power plants, stations, FACTS, etc.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 7. AutoCAD Electrical: AutoCAD electrical software is
used by many electrical engineers to design the wiring
plan of a building, machine designing, etc. AutoCAD gives
accuracy which enables engineers to draw with fractional
dimensions. AutoCAD software is easy to use and edit. It
gives a realistic view.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 8. PLC Programming: PLC (Programmable Logic
Controller) programming is easy to learn. One can learn
everything online about ladder diagram, configuration but
this is not sufficient, and the engineers should do things
practically and physically at any training centre. PLC is
used in many industries for monitoring and control
processes.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 9. SCADA Software: The SCADA software stands for is a
supervisory control and data acquisition. This software is
one of the important software to learn for electrical
engineers. This system is used in power plants,
substations, etc. to monitor and to find problems in
equipment. The use of the SCADA system increases the
life of the equipment because of regularly checking
system performance. It also reduces labour costs.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 10. AC/DC Drive Software: Nowadays, each and every
industry uses a drive it may be AC or DC based on the
application. The AC/DC drive software is used for
controlling the drive as our requirements. This software
usage can easily be found in steels mills, packages
industries, cable industries, etc.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 11. PSIM: PSIM is an Electronic circuit simulation
software package, designed specifically for use in power
electronics and motor drive simulations but can be used
to simulate any electronic circuit. It was developed by
Powersim. PSIM uses nodal analysis and the trapezoidal
rule integration as the basis of its simulation algorithm.

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Modelling & Simulation – Software Cont.
• 12. MATLAB/SIMULINK: MATLAB is a programming platform
designed specifically for engineers and scientists to analyse
and design systems and products that transform our world.
• Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming
environment for modelling, simulating and analysing multi
domain dynamical systems. Its primary interface is a
graphical block diagramming tool and a customizable set of
block libraries.
• Simulink is a block diagram environment used to design
systems with multi domain models, simulate before moving
to hardware, and deploy without writing code.
• Applications of MATLAB are speed control of motors, filter
design, control systems and communication theory.

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 Engineering Economics
• Engineering economics
• It deals with the methods that enable one to take economic decisions towards minimizing
costs and/or maximizing benefits to business organizations.

• Its role is therefore to:

• assess the appropriateness of a project,
• estimate its value,
• and justify it from an engineering point of view.

• It involves formulation, estimation an evaluation of the economic outcomes of different

available alternatives to achieve the defined objectives

• Utilises mathematical/ analytical techniques that makes economic comparison of different

alternatives simple

• The decisions involve the primary elements of cash flows of money, time, interest rates, etc.
• The Engineers must therefore:
• Be concerned with the economic aspects of designs and projects they recommend and perform
ELEMENTARY ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
• Elementary economic analysis for decision-making process

• The example below highlights the various components of cost that are involved in
• each of the alternatives of the decision-making process, as well as
• a method of taking a suitable decision

• Example
• Industry sourcing raw material from Nearby or Far away places – Cost implication:
• The factors below will affect the decision:
• Price of raw material
• Transportation cost of raw material
• Availability of raw material
• Quality of raw material

• (a) Consider the alternative of sourcing raw materials from a Nearby place with the
following characteristics:
 • The raw material is more costly in the nearby area.
• The availability of the raw material is not sufficient enough to support the
operation of the industry throughout the year.
• The raw material requires pre-processing before it is used in the production
process. This would certainly add cost to the product.
• The cost of transportation is minimal under this alternative

• (b) On the other hand, consider another alternative of sourcing the raw
materials from a far-off place with the following characteristics:
• The raw material is less costly at the far off place.
• The cost of transportation is very high.
• The availability of the raw material at this site is abundant and it can support the
plant throughout the year.
• The raw material from this site does not require any pre-processing before using
it for production.

• Under such a situation, the procurement of the raw material should be decided
in such a way that the overall cost is minimized.
 Costs
• Cost Can be broadly classified as:
• (a) Variable Costs – varies with volume of production
• (i)Direct Material Costs
• Cost of material that are used to make a product
• (ii)Direct Labour Costs
• E.g., amount of wages paid labour directly involved in production processes
• (iii)Direct Expenses
• These are costs which vary in relation to production volume, other than Direct material and
direct labour costs. E.g., hire charges for specific equipment, etc.

• (b) Overhead Costs - fixed regardless of production volumes

• (i)Factory Overhead – aggregate of indirect material costs, indirect labour costs, indirect
expenses
• Examples of:
• Indirect material costs: Cleaning supplies; Office supplies such as tape, glues and
adhesives.; Personal protective equipment, such as helmets and gloves, etc
• Indirect labour costs: wages of workers not directly related to production, e.g,
security services, cleaning services (some companies refer to the function as
support, hence support staff)
• Indirect expenses: legal charges, utility bill, rent, etc.
• (b) Overhead Costs (continues)
• (ii)Administration Overhead – all costs incurred in the administration of business
• (iii)Selling Overhead – total expenses or costs incurred in the promotional activities of
business
• Distribution Overhead – total costs of shipping of products from manufacturer to
customer

Other costs:
• Incremental/marginal cost
• Additional expense that will be incurred from increased output. That is, the cost of
producing extra unit of the product. Example if the company has been producing 20
cellphones P10,000.00, and it increases output by one to produce 21 cellphones at a
cost of P10,300.00. Then the marginal cost of producing the 21st cellphone is P300.00

• Sunk costs
• Past cost equipment or asset, and cannot be recovered by any future processes
• Does not form any part of engineering economics
• Example:
• A car which was bought for P600,000.00 four years ago. It current market price is (say
P250,000.00). For future economic analysis the price which is used is P250,000.00. Therefore
the P600,000.00 can no longer be used in analysis and is referred to as sunk cost.
Opportunity cost
• Consider that a person has
• invested a sum of P50,000.00 in shares. Let the expected annual return by this
alternative be P7,500.00
• If the same amount is invested in a fixed deposit, a bank will pay a return of 18%.
• Then:
• The corresponding total return per year for the investment in the bank is P9,000.00
• This return is greater than the return from shares.
• The foregone excess return of P1,500.00 by way of not investing in the bank is the opportunity
cost of investing in shares.

• Therefore, in general terms the opportunity cost can be explained as below:

• Opportunity cost of an alternative: is the return that will be foregone by not

investing the same money in another alternative
• Life-Cycle Cost
• The cost of entire life-cycle of a product from conceptualisation phase,
design, construction, operation and disposal costs
Rate of Return
• The rate of return:
• is the gain of loss, made by business entity, compared to the initial investment
over a period of time normally expressed as percentage.
𝐸𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡−𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
• 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 = 𝑥100%
𝐵𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
• Rate of return method
• can be used for comparison whereby the rate of return for each alternative is
computed.
• the alternative which has the highest rate of return is then selected as the best
alternative.
• In this type of analysis,
• the expenditures are always assigned with a negative sign, and
• the revenues/inflows are assigned with a positive sign.
Mathematical Optimization
• Optimization:
• “Optimization” comes from the same root as “optimal”, which means best.
When you optimize something, you are “making it best”

• Optimal design – a design process that seeks the “best” possible solution(s) for
a mechanical structure, device, or system, satisfying the requirements and
leading to the “best” performance, through optimization techniques.
• Mathematical Optimization
• Branch of applied mathematics, which is applicable in wide range of fields such
as:
• Manufacturing;
• Transportation
• Economics
• Engineering
• etc

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Three main elements of optimization
problem
• There are three main elements to solve an optimization problem:
• Objective function – this is the output you are trying to maximise or minimise, f(x)
• Variables – these are inputs, that is things you are able to control, denoted e.g.,
x1, x2, x3, etc
• Constraints – these are equations which places limits on how big or small some
variables can get.
• A key aspect is that: constraints such as resource limitations and the need to arrive at
realistic solutions must be respected.
• In general, optimization problems fall into one of two categories:
• Linear, and
• nonlinear.
Mathematical Models
• Mathematical model
• is an abstract description of a concrete system using mathematical concepts and language.
• The process of developing a mathematical model is termed:
• Mathematical modeling.
• Mathematical models;
• are used in applied mathematics and in the natural sciences (such as physics, biology, earth
science, chemistry), and
• engineering disciplines (such as computer science, electrical engineering), as well as
• in non-physical systems such as the social sciences (such as economics, psychology,
sociology, political science).
• A model may help to explain a system, and to
• study the effects of different components, and to
• make predictions about system and/ or components behavior.

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Mathematical Models - Classification
• Types of Mathematical Models:
• Linear vs. nonlinear models

• Static vs. dynamic models

• Static (time is not taken into account) or dynamic (time-varying interactions among
variables are taken into account)

• Discrete vs. continuous models

• Discrete models use distinct, countable values, while continuous models represent
smooth, unbroken flows
• (e.g. the number of objects in a collection). Continuous variables represent measurable
amounts (e.g. water volume or weight)

• Deterministic vs. probabilistic (stochastic) models

• Deterministic (input and output variables are fixed values) or stochastic (at least one of
the input or output variables are probabilistic)

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• Examples of Optimization models and methods
• Differential Calculus method
• Lagrange Multiplier method
• Search methods
• Multivariable search method
• Linear programming
• Non-linear programming
General Form of a Linear Programming
Problem
• In a linear programming problem, the variables of the
objective function are linearly related i.e., the power of the
variables is unity.
• For example:
• 𝑭 𝒙 = 𝒄𝟏 𝒙𝟏 + 𝒄𝟐 𝒙𝟐 + ⋯ + 𝒄𝒏 𝒙𝒏
• Where 𝒄𝟏 , 𝒄𝟐 , … , 𝒄𝒏 are coefficients and 𝒙𝟏 , 𝒙𝟐 , … , 𝒙𝒏
are design variables.

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Differential Calculus Method
• It finds the maximum and minimum value of a given function.
• Maxima & Minima – Example
• What is the value of the function 𝑥 − 1 𝑥 − 2 2
at its maxima?
• Solution:
• Given: f x = 𝑥 − 1 𝑥 − 2 2
• ⇒ f x = 𝑥 − 1 (𝑥 2 − 4𝑥 + 4) 2
• ⇒ f x = 𝑥 3 − 5𝑥 2 + 8𝑥 − 4
• Now by differentiating f x with respect to ‘𝑥’,
• f ′ x = 3x 2 − 10x + 8
• To find value of ‘𝑥’, lets substitute f ′ x =0;

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Maxima & Minima – Example (continues)
• f ′ x = 3x 2 − 10x + 8; f ′ x =0;
• 3x 2 − 10x + 8 = 0
• 3𝑥 − 4 𝑥 − 2 = 0 ⇒ 𝑥 = 4/3, 2
• Hence, at 𝑥 = 4/3, the function will occupy maximum value.
4
• Maximum value = f = 4/27!
3

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Examples of applicability:
• From the values of maximum and minimum speed of a train, an
engineer will be able to decide on the materials required to
withstand the speed, to manufacture brakes for the train to run
smoothly.
• Etc.