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Conditions under which compositions of component systems form a well-defined system-of-systems are here formulated at a fundamental level. Statement of what defines a well-defined composition and sufficient conditions guaranteeing such a result offers insight into exemplars that can be found in special cases such as differential equation and discrete event systems. For any given global state of a composition, two requirements can be stated informally as: (1) the system can leave this state, i.e., there is at least one trajectory defined that starts from the state; and (2) the trajectory evolves over time without getting stuck at a point in time. Considered for every global state, these conditions determine whether the resultant is a well-defined system and, if so, whether it is non-deterministic or deterministic. We formulate these questions within the framework of iterative specifications for mathematical system models that are shown to be behaviorally equivalent to the Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) formalism. This formalization supports definitions and proofs of the afore-mentioned conditions. Implications are drawn at the fundamental level of existence where the emergence of a system from an assemblage of components can be characterized. We focus on systems with feedback coupling where existence and uniqueness of solutions is problematic.

System specifications and testing model for increasing the rated power output, rotor diameter, hub height, and maximum tip speed of horizontal axis wind turbines is designed and implemented on the system advisor model simulator. Its performance is tested on offshore wind turbine’s direct-drive and single stage-low speed generators. Although this simulator produces impressive results, it has some limitations in the operation of wind turbines. The terrain and topography of wind turbines are not considered in the simulation process. It also does not assess the electrical transients and physical stress of wind turbine components. Despite its limitations, four large offshore wind turbines and wind farms have been successfully simulated. It is found that the 9 MW, 10 MW, 11 MW and their respective wind farms generate more energy and better capacity factor on the direct-drive than single stage-low speed generator. Furthermore, a rectangular layout of 20 wind turbines considerably impacted the excellent performance of this generator on the wind farms. Another notable outcome of the study is that higher system specifications do not always generate feasible results for wind turbines despite favourable weather conditions. For the Vestas 8 MW wind turbine, the viable percentages for increasing the size of its rated power output, rotor diameter, hub height and maximum tip speed is only 12.5%, 25% and 37.5%. The viability of these three upgrades has been confirmed by suitable graphs of power curves and feasible energy production results. Thus, these percentages confirm an 8 MW wind turbine’s attainable design limits for generating realistic energy production and capacity factor. On the contrary, a 50% increase in the above four system specifications yielded unviable capacity factor and energy production results. This is because this upgrade is too high to work successfully on the current wind turbine technology. Furthermore, the shape of the power curve from the 50% specifications is not the typical curve for wind turbines. It has been observed that increasing the value of maximum tip speed beyond 143 m/s and the rotor diameter beyond 246 m give rise to an unusual power curve. Concerning wind speed for high energy production, an average daily minimum and maximum wind speed of 4.58 m/s and 15.08 m/s yielded good results. Given the prevailing trend of designing large wind turbines, findings in this study are particularly helpful in understanding how capacity factor, energy production and energy losses are affected by the size of system specifications. Not only that, but these findings also have fundamental concepts that can be used to optimize the design of large offshore wind turbines. The study is equally valuable for determining suitable weather conditions and wind power potential for large offshore wind farm sites. / Dissertation (MEng (Electrical Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng (Electrical Engineering) / Unrestricted

De nos jours, le degré de complexité des systèmes de transport notamment ferroviaires est important et grandissant. En effet, les nouvelles technologies et besoins des grandes métropoles contraignent les concepteurs de ces systèmes à toujours intégrer de plus en plus de fonctionnalités. Cette complexité rend obsolète les méthodes de conception traditionnelles qui reposent sur l'expertise d'ingénieurs. La conception du système est définie sur plusieurs documents de spécification, de centaines de pages chacun. Ces derniers comprennent généralement la description des différentes exigences, fonctionnalités et sous-systèmes, ils sont rédigés en langage naturel. Ceci est source d'erreurs et ambigüités lors des différentes phases de conception et de validation sécuritaire. De ce fait, l'ingénierie système basée sur les modèles propose des solutions outillées afin de structurer et spécifier de manière systématique le fonctionnement du système. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons une approche de rétro-ingénierie de ces spécifications système. Cette approche nous permet de définir une méthodologie orientée-scénarios pour la formalisation et analyse de spécifications système. Elle est basée sur le langage de modélisation semi-formel ScOLa (Scénarios Oriented Language) et un modèle d'exécution formel basé sur le langage AltaRica 3.0. Nous proposons, á partir de ScOLa, des techniques contribuant aux analyses de sûreté fonctionnelles du système. Ces techniques permettent de clarifier, structurer et analyser / As of today, the complexity of transportation systems and especially railways is continuously growing. Indeed, new technologies and needs of major metropolitan areas constrain system designers to integrate more and more functionalities. Traditional methods for the design of systems are mainly based on the knowledge of experts. Systems are specified in several documents, of hundreds of pages each. These documents provide a general description of the requirements, functionalities and sub-systems, and are written in a natural language. This is error-prone and source of ambiguities. Model-based systems engineering proposes systematic solutions to structure and specify systems architectures. In this thesis, we propose a reverse engineering approach that is able to capture systems concepts. This leads us to propose ScOLa, a scenario-oriented modeling language for systems specifications with the following features:- A scenario-oriented approach to provide a more contextual view of the system, at several abstraction levels.- A co-construction of the architecture and behavior of the system in the same model.- The use of ScOLa for a seamless integration of system specification and safety analysis. We propose ascenario-oriented methodology for safety analysis, implemented using AltaRica 3.0.

This thesis investigates the expressiveness of specification languages for stochastic safety-critical systems, addressing the need for expressiveness in describing system behaviour formally. Through a case study and specification language enhancements, the research explores the impact of different frameworks on a set of specifications. The results highlight the importance of continuous development in the specification languages to meet the complex behaviours of systems with probabilistic properties. The findings emphasise the need for extending the chosen specification languages more formally, to ensure that the languages can capture the complexity of the systems they describe.  The research contributes valuable insights into improving the expressiveness of specification languages for ensuring system safety and operational reliability.