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Table of Contents
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The Organization of this Guide

This document is the user guide, which covers the following topics:

  • Introduction - Provides an introduction to simulation and the principles behind the use of the eHS solver.

  • Requirements - Software requirements for the eFPGAsim toolbox, including the eHS solver.

  • Building models with the eHS solver - Describes the procedure to develop an RT-LAB model with the eHS solver.

Conventions

OPAL-RT guides use the following conventions:

Table 1: General and Typographical Conventions


CONVENTION

DESCRIPTION

Bold

User interface elements, text that must be typed exactly as shown.

Note

Emphasizes or supplements parts of the text. You can disregard the information in a note and still complete a task.

Warning

Describes an action that must be avoided or followed to obtain desired results.

Recommendation

Describes an action that you may or may not follow and still complete a task.

Code

Sample code

Italics

References work titles

Blue Text

Cross-references (internal or external) or hypertext links

About the OPAL-RT from the eFPGASIM Toolbox

The OPAL-RT electric Hardware Solver (eHS) is a powerful floating-point solver developed by OPAL-RT that enables users to simulate an electric circuit on an FPGA automatically, without having to write the mathematical equations.

It combines the simplicity of building electric circuit models using the SimPowerSystems Simscape Electrical Specialized Power Systems (SPS) Toolbox, PSIM, the PLECS Blockset, or NI Multisim software with the strength of OPAL-RT FPGA-based simulators to solve the currents and voltages within the circuit in real-time, with a sample time below 1μs.

...

eHS solvers provide a flexible environment that allows the user to design the simulated circuit in various netlist editors such as SimPowerSystems SPS and PLECS Simulink toolboxes, Powersim PSIM, and NI Multisim software.

...

Table 1 -eHS Gen3 specification table

Features

eHSx16

eHSx32

eHSx64

eHSx128

Targeted platforms

cRIO 7068 (Zynq 7020)

OP4200 (Zynq 7030)

OP5600 (Virtex 6 240t)

OP4510 (Kintex7 325t)
OP5700 (Virtex7 485t)

OP5607 (Virtex 7 485t)

Number of eHS core available

1

1

1 (OP4510)
2 (OP5607 OP5700)

1

Number of inputs

16

32

32

128

Number of outputs

16

32

32

128

Number of switches

24

48

72

144

LCA capability2

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Maximum number of states3

60

100

150

300

Maximum Timestep

2.56us

4us

Number of resistors

Unlimited

Switches type supported

IGBT/Diode, Diode, Breaker, Thyristor, Ideal Switch

Non-switching devices supported

Resistor, Inductor, Capacitor, Ideal Transformer, Mutual inductance, PI Line

Calculation power

6.4 GFLOPS

12.8 GFLOPS

25.6 GFLOPS

51.2 GFLOPS

Maximum number of test scenarios4

Up to 512 scenarios

Circuit editors compatible

SimPowerSystems

SPS Simulink toolbox, PSIM, PLECS Blockset Simulink Toolbox, NI Multisim


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  • 2 LCA stands for Loss Compensation Algorithm. This feature optimizes losses for standard topologies such as the two-level and the three-level NPC arm converters.

  • 3 Estimated values. The maximum number of states depends on the number of inputs and outputs that needs to be computed as well. There is no hard coded limit. If the time step required exceeds the solver’s limit, a compilation error will occur due to overpassing the circuit size limit.

  • 4 The number of scenario available for a given circuit depends on the circuit complexity. Scenarios are not currently supported on the OP4200 target.



eHS (Dual eHS) (Gen1 - Deprecated)

The circuit is designed using blocks from the SimPowerSystems SPS library. A limited number of elements, chosen from a specific list, can be included in each circuit. The maximum number of circuits that can be simulated in one real-time model depends on the firmware installed in the solver hardware and the number of available eHS licenses in the simulation system.

The number of elements in each circuit is subject to the following limitations:

  • S = 0..24 switching elements

  • U = 1..16 current or voltage inputs

  • Y = 1..16 current or voltage measurements

  • NSD = 0..60 non-switching devices. The number of non-switching devices includes L and C. "LC" and "RLC" branches each count for two non-switching devices.

  • The number of resistors is not limited.

External Tools

Simulink is a software package developed by The MathWorks, Inc. that enables modeling, simulation and analysis of dynamic systems.

...

Users are expected to have a clear understanding of Simulink operation, particularly regarding model definition and simulation parameters.

...

Simscape Electrical Specialized Power Systems (SPS) and PLECS Simulink Toolboxes

The SimPowerSystems SPS and PLECS Blockset toolboxes provide libraries and analysis tools useful for modeling and simulating electrical systems.

...