Simulation of pneumatic systems

I am new to the MATLAB SIMULINK, I am working on a project which involves inflation and deflation of a fabric/plastic tubes&structures using Air pressure developed by a pump (eg: car tyres inflaters, parachutes.)

Please help me, can we simulate this kind of systems in simscape multibody, because I wnat to develope a system along with 3D visualization.

If yes, where to find fabric, plastic & elastic materials. and how to simulate the fabric material like a air pillow inflation system along with animation. and how to calculate pressure requirements to inflate the desired geometry ?

Answer 1

[praguna manvi]

Hi @Sai,

As I understand, you are looking for guidance on modeling a pneumatic system using Simscape. The following example might be useful, as it models a pneumatic actuator system with components from the "Foundational Library Gas":

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simscape/ug/pneumatic-actuation-circuit.html

For simulating the specific behavior of materials, this is not available out of the box. However, you can adjust the specific properties of the elements used in the pneumatic simulation. Here is a list of elements from the "Foundational Library Gas" for more information:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simscape/elements-2.html

It is also possible to directly import models from CAD into Simscape Multibody and then connect them to a pneumatic system. To perform this refer to this link on connecting a Simscape network to Simscape Multibody:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/simscape/ug/connecting-simscape-networks-to-simscape-multibody-joints.html

Also, here is a useful answer for importing a pump model:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/618808-3d-cad-file-to-pump-model

I hope this helps!