The Advanced Continuous Simulation Language, or ACSL (pronounced "axle"), is a

computer language A computer language is a formal language used to communicate with a computer. Types of computer languages include: * Construction language – all forms of communication by which a human can specify an executable problem solution to a compu ...

designed for modeling and evaluating the performance of continuous systems described by time-dependent, nonlinear

differential equations In mathematics, a differential equation is an equation that relates one or more unknown functions and their derivatives. In applications, the functions generally represent physical quantities, the derivatives represent their rates of change, an ...

. Like

SIMCOS SIMCOS (an acronym standing for ''SIMulation of COntinuous Systems'') is a computer language and a development environment for computer simulation. In 1989 it was developed by Slovenian experts led by Borut Zupančič. Properties The purpose of ...

and

TUTSIM TUTSIM was the first commercial simulation software ever to run on an IBM-PC. The package was used for the modeling and simulation of multi-domain systems using differential equations and bond graphs. History TUTSIM (Twente University of Technology ...

, ACSL is a dialect of the Continuous System Simulation Language (CSSL), originally designed by the Simulation Councils Inc (SCI) in 1967 in an attempt to unify the continuous simulations field.

Language highlights

ACSL is an equation-oriented language consisting of a set of arithmetic operators, standard functions, a set of special ACSL statements, and a MACRO capability which allows extension of the special ACSL statements. ACSL is intended to provide a simple method of representing mathematical models on a digital computer. Working from an equation description of the problem or a

block diagram A block diagram is a diagram of a system in which the principal parts or functions are represented by blocks connected by lines that show the relationships of the blocks.

, the user writes ACSL statements to describe the system under investigation. An important feature of ACSL is its sorting of the continuous model equations, in contrast to general purpose programming languages such as Fortran where program execution depends critically on statement order.

Typical applications

Applications of ACSL in new areas are being developed constantly. Typical areas in which ACSL is currently applied include

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design,

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simulation, chemical process dynamics,

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dynamics,

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

and

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growth,

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models,

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handling,

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controllers, and

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References

Simulation programming languages Computer-aided engineering software Scientific simulation software {{science-software-stub