Specifying the Solution Type for a SubModel

The first step in creating a SubModel (after inserting the element) is to specify the Solution Type. There are two options: "Simulation" and "Optimization".

This option determines how the SubModel is being used. For most applications, you should choose "Simulation", which is the default.

"Optimization" will normally only be used when a SubModel is being used to carry out a dynamic optimization (i.e., at specified times) during a simulation. For example, imagine a situation where you were simulating the operation of a facility over a period of one year. Every month, the operators make a decision based on the current state of the system. This decision is based on a simple optimization analysis using currently available data (i.e., at every simulated month during the simulation). The optimization chooses the optimum values of a few control variables that they will use for the next month.

To represent this in GoldSim, you would need to specify the Solution Type for the SubModel as "Optimization", and the SubModel itself would represent the optimization calculations carried out by the simulated operator.

Note: If the Solution Type is “Optimization”, Monte Carlo options for the SubModel must be set to “Deterministic”.

If you do choose the Simulation Type as "Optimization", you will also need to specify the optimization settings in the Optimization tab for the SubModel.