Intermittent Connection Error Model

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Description

The Intermittent Connection Error Model simulates faulty electrical connections by toggling the IsOpenCircuit flag of the Power Node Model attached to the same Physical Object or inherited class. The model creates random connection failures that follow a configurable Gaussian distribution, useful for testing system robustness against intermittent power issues.

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Example Use Cases

• Fault Simulation: Simulate real-world scenarios where power connections experience intermittent failures due to vibration or thermal cycling.
• Reliability Testing: Test system robustness against intermittent power issues to ensure critical systems can handle connection dropouts.

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Module Implementation

Timing Distribution

The time between state transitions is sampled from a Gaussian distribution:

$$t_{\text{next}}=t+\mathcal{N}(\mu ,\sigma )$$

where $t$ is the current simulation time, $\mu$ is the IntermittentMean (default 100 s), and $\sigma$ is the IntermittentStd (default 10 s). When the simulation time reaches $t_{\text{next}}$, the model toggles the connection state.

External Override Detection

The model monitors for external changes to the parent’s open-circuit state:

• Manual open: If the user or another system opens the circuit while the model expects it closed, the model disables itself as a safety override.
• Manual close: If the user closes the circuit while the model expects it open, the model adopts the new state and continues operating.
• State restored: If the state returns to what the model expects while disabled, the model re-enables automatically.

The IsDisabled flag indicates when the model has been disabled due to external override. Call Reset to manually re-enable the model and adopt the current parent state as the new baseline.

Connection State

The IsConnected flag tracks the model’s view of the connection:

• true: The model considers the connection intact (circuit closed).
• false: The model has opened the circuit to simulate a fault.

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Assumptions/Limitations

• The model assumes connection failures follow a normal distribution, which may not represent all real-world failure modes.
• The model requires a Power Node Model on the parent object; without one, no fault injection occurs.
• Manual safety overrides (opening the circuit externally) disable the model until reset or the state is restored.