The Fundamental Modeling Practices and Specifications to support the Preservation and Reuse of Analytical Simulations

Abstract

Significant opportunities exist to preserve and reusesimulation and analytical models and data. Based on thecapabilities developed by the Modelica Association (MA),LOTAR International (Lotar), and other contributing tooldevelopers, multiple engineering and manufacturingindustries can compile extensive archives of reusable andinteroperable performance, behavior and integrated productinformation. Through the development and implementation ofa preservation plan, the use of compliant off-the shelfsoftware applications, and packaging using compatible datastandards, a repository of analytical interactions,simulations and functional prototypes can be archived,maintained, and resourced by future users. This paperidentifies progress made since the publication of (Coïc2021, Coïc 2023) with respect to maturity of the LOTARdraft standards – ASD-STAN 9300 series, (ASD-STAN, 2025)and accompanying prototype implementations. There has alsobeen significant progress on the side of ModelicaAssociation relevant standards with the standardization oflayered standards in FMI and SSP (Modelica Association2024-11., Modelica Association 2024-12), and new versionsof both standards. The soon to be released layered standardSSP Traceability (Modelica Association 2025-04) providesmechanisms to document and preserve relevant metadata formodel archiving – Long Term Archiving and Retrieval(LOTAR). The FMI layered standard FMI-LS-Ref standardizesparameter sets and reference results, which are animportant subset of the required LOTAR Internationalarchiving data.