Fluid stochastic Petri nets augmented with flush-out arcs: Modelling and analysis (Q5928917)

In the last years, Fluid Stochastic Petri Nets (FSPN) were introduced in the literature. These nets have both discrete and continuous places. Often these models are better qualified for the description of large systems then classical Petri Nets with discrete places only. Here, the authors present an extension of FSPN. They introduce a so called flush-out arc which connects a fluid place to a timed transition with the effect of instantaneously emptying the fluid place when the transition is closed. This novel primitive makes it possible to use the formalism to applications in which the accumulation of a continuous quantity can be preempted and restarted. The dynamics of the underlying stochastic process of the new formalism is described by a set of integro-differential equations. The authors show a methodology to derive the needed equations from the model specifications. The applicability of the theory is illustrated by various examples.