Business Simulation Library (BSL)

A Modelica library for modeling & simulation of dynamical systems in the social sciences, e.g., business, economics, and ecology using the System Dynamics metaphor.

Library Description

System Dynamics offers a very general, low-level modeling paradigm, that lends itself perfectly to model, simulate, and analyze strategic business and policy issues in any kind of organization. Unlike existing aproaches the BSL makes use of Modelica's acausal connectors to better distinguish material/mass flows from instantaneous information signal flows (causal connections). The approach has the additional benefit of allowing the modeler to build more compact models in a fast and reliable fashion.

Overview of the Main Packages

Icon	Name	Description
	CausalLoop	Agile system dynamics modeling with quantitative causal loop diagrams (CLD+)
	Stocks	Containers ("reservoirs") used to represent entities that have been stored in a specific state
	Flows	Processes that move entities from one stock to another at a specific rate
	SourcesOrSinks	Flows into or out of a stock with infinite capacity at a system's boundary
	Converters	Information processing (blocks)
	InformationSources	External information input
	MoleculesOfStructure	Pre-built components to model information processing, decision making and subsystems in general (blocks, incubators, transceivers, and actuators)

Using the pre-built components modelers can start to build their own components to eventually arrive at an appropriate representation of the system in focus in a hierarchical fashion.

Documentation and Release Notes

You can read the documentation for the library online at:
https://bsl-support.de/BusinessSimulation/BusinessSimulation

Release Notes are included with the documentation and can be found there as well.

The library was developed and tested using Wolfram System Modeler and Wolfram Mathematica.
User experience may differ when using other modeling and simulation environments.

The freely available Lato fonts family is used by library classes; for the best visual experience it is highly recommended to install this font on your computer, which is available for download from its official site or—in an earlier version—from the Google Fonts website.

Publications

• Reichert, GW. 2022. Hierarchical, Component-Based Modeling Using the Cyber-Physical Modeling Language Modelica. In Conference Record of the 2022 System Dynamics Conference. Frankfurt, Germany, System Dynamics Society. [ online ]

• Reichert, GW. 2022. Business Simulation Library v2.0 released. System Dynamics Review 38(1): 113–116. [ DOI ]

License

Copyright © 2020 Guido Wolf Reichert
Licensed under the European Union Public Licence (EUPL), Version 1.2 or later (the "License")

You may not use this work except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2017/863/oj

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either expressed or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Modelica© is a registered trademark of the Modelica Association. Wolfram System Modeler™ is a trademark of Wolfram Research, Inc. Wolfram Mathematica and Mathematica™ are registered trademarks of Wolfram Research, Inc.

Development and Contribution

You may report bugs and other issues or simply make suggestions for future enhancements by using the Issues button.

Please refrain from pull requests until an appropriate Contributor License Agreement (CLA) has been established.

Corresponding Author