Methodology for Selection of Co-Simulation Platform for Digital Twin Development of Maritime Energy Systems

Abstract

Abstract Digital twins (DTs) are being increasingly considered in the maritime industry for the purposes of system design, monitoring, control, optimization, operational planning, maintenance, fault detection, and life cycle management. A system simulation can be utilized to enable many of these functionalities. Co-simulation based on the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) is typically used to interface component models independently developed in different modelling platforms, possibly having different supplier intellectual property restrictions. Currently, more than 170 software tools support FMI, a subset of which also support co-simulation. In this paper, a methodology for the selection of a co-simulation platform for a maritime DT is presented. The methodology is demonstrated for two maritime energy system case studies with different DT purposes and users, that represent different phases of a ship’s lifecycle. MATLAB/Simulink and Open Simulation Platform (OSP) are used as example co-simulation platforms. The DT’s purpose and its users are considered to understand the functional and interface requirements for a qualitative comparison of the platforms. Additionally, the platforms’ performance is compared quantitatively by co-simulating Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs) of the component models. The derived requirements, as well as the platforms’ capabilities and offerings, are then analyzed to select a suitable platform. It is shown that the choice of the co-simulation platform can be different according to the DT’s purpose, users, and phase of the ship’s and DT’s lifecycle.