Hamed Ghasemieh

Survivability Evaluation of Fluid Critical Infrastructures Using Hybrid Petri Nets

In this paper we propose a formal, model-checking based procedure to evaluate the survivability of fluid critical infrastructures. To do so, we introduce the Stochastic Time Logic (STL), which allows to precisely express intricate state-based and until-based properties for an important class of hybrid Petri nets. We present an efficient model checking procedure which recursively traverses the underlying state-space of the hybrid Petri net model, and identifies those regions (subsets of the discrete-continuous state space) that satisfy STL formulae. A case study studying the survivability of a water refinery and distribution plant shows the feasibility of our approach.

Region-Based analysis of hybrid petri nets with a single general one-shot transition

Recently, hybrid Petri nets with a single general one-shot transition (HPnGs) have been introduced together with an algorithm to analyze their underlying state space using a conditioning/deconditioning approach. In this paper we propose a considerably more efficient algorithm for analysing HPnGs. The proposed algorithm maps the underlying state-space onto a plane for all possible firing times of the general transition s and for all possible systems times t. The key idea of the proposed method is that instead of dealing with infinitely many points in the t-s-plane, we can partition the state space into several regions, such that all points inside one region are associated with the same system state. To compute the probability to be in a specific system state at time τ, it suffices to find all regions intersecting the line t = τ and decondition the firing time over the intersections. This partitioning results in a considerable speed-up and provides more accurate results. A scalable case study illustrates the efficiency gain with respect to the previous algorithm.

Energy Resilience Modelling for Smart Houses

The use of renewable energy in houses and neighbourhoods is very much governed by national legislation and has recently led to enormous changes in the energy market and poses a serious threat to the stability of the grid at peak production times. One of the approaches towards a more balanced grid is, e.g., taken by the German government by subsidizing local storage for solar power. While the main interest of the energy operator and the government is to balance the grid, thereby ensuring its stability, the main interest of the client is twofold: the total cost for electricity should be as low as possible and the house should be as resilient as possible in the presence of power outages. Using local battery storage can help to overcome the effects of power outages. However, the resulting resilience highly depends on the battery usage strategy employed by the controller, taking into account the state of charge of the battery. We present a Hybrid Petri net model of a house (that is mainly powered by solar energy) with a local storage unit, and analyse the impact of different battery usage strategies on its resilience for different production and consumption patterns. Our analysis shows that there is a direct relationship between resilience and flexibility, since increased resilience, i.e., reserving battery capacity for backup, decreases the flexibility of the storage unit.

Survivability Evaluation of Gas, Water and Electricity Infrastructures

The infrastructures used in cities to supply power, water and gas are consistently becoming more automated. As society depends critically on these cyber-physical infrastructures, their survivability assessment deserves more attention. In this overview, we first touch upon a taxonomy on survivability of cyber-physical infrastructures, before we focus on three classes of infrastructures (gas, water and electricity) and discuss recent modelling and evaluation approaches and challenges.

Fluid Survival Tool: A Model Checker for Hybrid Petri Nets

Recently, algorithms for model checking Stochastic Time Logic (STL) on Hybrid Petri nets with a single general one-shot transition (HPNG) have been introduced. This paper presents a tool for model checking HPNG models against STL formulas. A graphical user interface (GUI) not only helps to demonstrate and validate existing algorithms, it also eases use. From the output of the model checker, 2D and 3D plots can be generated. The extendable object-oriented tool has been developed using the Model-View-Controller and Facade patterns, Doxygen for documentation and Qt for GUI development written in C++.

Survivability analysis of a sewage treatment facility using hybrid Petri nets

Waste water treatment facilities clean sewage water from households and industry in several cleaning steps. Such facilities are dimensioned to accommodate a maximum intake. However, in the case of very bad weather conditions or failures of system components, the system might not be able to accommodate all waste water. This paper models a real waste water treatment facility, situated in the city of Enschede, the Netherlands, with Hybrid Petri nets with general transitions, to analyse under which circumstances the existing infrastructure will overflow. Comparing to previous models an structural extension is proposed, and one limitation is tackled. First, we extended the hybrid Petri net formalism with guard arcs and dynamic continuous transitions, to be able to model dependencies on continuous places and the rates of continuous transitions. Secondly, we tackle the restriction of having only a single general transition, by proposing a new discretization method. We introduce to different discretization methods, and compare their efficiency in a complex case study. Using recently developed algorithms for model checking STL properties on hybrid Petri nets, the paper computes survivability measures that can be expressed using the path-based until operator. After computing measures for a wide range of parameters, we provide recommendations as to where the system can be improved to reduce the probability of overflow.