Continuous system simulation is a companion textbook to Continuous system modeling [1]. The modeling text emphasizes representing physical systems as formal and abstracted models. The simulation text continues the process and focuses on the computational algorithms that produce numerical results from the model’s equations. The style of writing is relaxed and conversational, like a set of good lectures, and has a comparable level of depth. The examples used appear to be approachable. RLC electrical circuits are used throughout the book. However, the authors draw many levels of complexity from these simple examples. These modest engineering examples allow students to focus on the computational issues that arise in performing the simulations instead of trying to make them understand the model as well.

There are 12 chapters in the book. The first four emphasize the numerical solution of first-order ordinary differential equations. The fifth and sixth chapters extend the discussion to second derivative systems and to partial differential equations. Chapters 7 and 8 are on differential algebraic equations and their solvers. Discontinuous systems are discussed in chapter 9. Simulation of real-time systems and performance issues are the topics of chapter 10. Discrete and quantized systems are presented in the last two chapters.

Each chapter has a set of homework problems and a few more open-ended projects. Students are expected to use MATLAB, and there are frequent discussions of how algorithms discussed in the book appear in a software product called Dymola, a third-party add-in requiring MATLAB and SIMULINK. Students are expected to already be competent MATLAB users. There are only a handful of fully implemented MATLAB routines. The discussion in the text is almost entirely mathematical.

This book and its companion are graduate-level texts for students in engineering, applied mathematics, and applied physics. The topics are developed rather tightly. The material in the earlier chapters needs to be mastered to comprehend the material in the later ones.