Reflections on Engineering Systems and Bond Graphs

An important aspect of modern engineering systems is their great diversity. Often they include interactions among different physical domains, contain control subsystems, and are large-scale and complex. The bond graph is a powerful and versatile tool that can help the engineer to design modern engineering systems. Three issues are explored from a bond graph perspective: modeling of engineering systems, simulation of their behavior, and teaching about engineering systems. It is the author’s observation that bond graph methodology is one of the most useful engineering system techniques available and belongs in the problem-solving tool kit of every mechanical engineer. This paper develops a rationale for this viewpoint both for readers familiar with bond graph methods and for readers to whom they are new.