Screen of GS flowchart
Simulation is pretty simple. The gas station serves cars, which have three fuel types. Sometimes the gasoline tanker arrives to refill the tanks. The gas station serves cars, which have three fuel types. Sometimes the gasoline tanker arrives to refill the tanks.
We have three different fluid flowcharts and two process flowcharts that manage fluid flowcharts from an action code. So, the main fluid flowchart represents the gas station. It has three Enter blocks and twelve embedded Exit blocks. Each dispenser has an Exit for fuel type respectively, and shares one tank per fuel type. The embedded Split4 block ensures that each dispenser get its portion of fuel, splitting the flow among four pipelines equally.
Split block
The Exit block forwards the flow to a specified Enter block (like a connector). A modeler can switch the Enter block at model run, allowing it to disconnect an Exit block from one Enter and connect it to another Enter (or remain nonconnected). Nonconnected Exit blocks are allowed.
This feature is used in the model when an incoming car connects its Enter block with the Exit block of the dispenser and opens the valve.
Delay action
Car flowchart
The Valve block dispenses a certain amount of fuel and then closes itself. Both opening and closing events are scheduled, so the modeler can perform actions here. In the model, the On dispense completed action disconnects the dispenser Exit, and the car leaves the station.
Valve properties
The same feature is used for the simulation of arriving tankers. They act like a fuel source, so their Exit block is connected to Enter blocks at Main, which forwards fuel from tanker to Tank with the respective fuel type.
Tanker chart
Delay action
We have covered all of the blocks of Fluid Library. In the next post we'll discuss the advanced features of the library.
