Parametric studies

This page documents an experimental feature. You can help out by testing it and recording your experiences.

The following code snippet implements something like the old STUDY method from the Tcl/Tk GUI. In this version, it is implemented as a plot, as shown above. At present the python script must be modified each time you want to change the parameters in your study. With some work, we hope to encapsulate this so that the STUDY can be created with only a METHOD call in the .a4l file.

File:Parameter-study.png

<img src="/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" />

Results of parametric study using ExtPy functionality

import extpy;

 from pylab import *
 from solverreporter import *

 def studyplot(self):

      # following is an unfortunate necessity in the current system architecture:
      browser = extpy.getbrowser()

      # just check that all is ok
      browser.do_solve()

      ioff()
      n = 20;

      mdot_min = 1.7
      mdot_max = 12
      figure()

      #self.inlet.p.setRealValueWithUnits(20,"bar");
      #self.inlet.T.setRealValueWithUnits(100+273.15,"K")

      betavals = [0.2177, 0.25,  0.275,0.3, 0.325,0.35,0.4,0.45,0.5,   0.7,0.9]

      betalines = ['b.-','g.-','r.-' ,'c-','m-','y-','b--','g--','r--','c:','m:','y:']

      plots = 0
      for beta in betavals:
           print "BETA = %f" % beta
           self.OP.beta.setRealValue(beta)

           xdata = []
           ydata = []

           for i in range(n):

                mdot = mdot_min + (mdot_max-mdot_min)*i/n
                self.mdot.setRealValueWithUnits(mdot,"kg/s")

                try:
                     browser.sim.solve(browser.solver,SimpleSolverReporter(browser,"beta = %f, mdot = %f"%(beta,mdot)))

                except:
                     browser.reporter.reportError('Failed to solve for mdot = %d' % mdot)

                     continue

                xdata.append(mdot)
                ydata.append(-self.dp.as("bar"))

           if xdata:
                plot(xdata,ydata,betalines[plots],label='%0.3f'%beta)

                hold(1)
                plots += 1

      if plots:

           xlabel("Mass flow rate / [kg/s]")
           ylabel("Pressure drop / [bar]")
           title("Pressure drop vs flow rate, various orifice ratios")

           legend(loc='upper left')
           ylim(ymax=4.0)
           ion()

           show()
      else:
           browser.reporter.reportError("NO PLOTS CREATED")

 extpy.registermethod(studyplot)
 #the above method can be called using "EXTERNAL studyplot(SELF)" in ASCEND.