Looking for MATLAB/Simulink Models That Use Electrical Analogs to Study Mechanical Systems

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for MATLAB/Simulink models that use electrical analogies to study mechanical phenomena. The idea is to represent a mechanical system (mass, friction, compliance, force, velocity, etc.) using an equivalent electrical circuit (RLC, transformers, current/force analogies, etc.), similar to the principle shown in the attached image.

My goal is to use these electrical analog models to:

• better analyze mechanical behaviors,
• identify or correct mechanical issues by studying their electrical equivalents,
• and refine system modeling through the analog approach.

I would like to know:

1. Are there existing MATLAB or Simulink example models that use this type of mechanical–electrical analogy?
2. Has anyone published studies, examples, or reference implementations using this method (force-current or force-voltage analogs)?
3. Are there books, toolboxes, or official MATLAB resources that cover this modeling approach?

Any guidance, shared models, or documentation would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Sabin]

There are no in-product examples showing the mechanical-electrical analogy. There are quite a few books/articles covering bond graph in the academia (probably some MATLAB implementations are available on File Exchange as well).

You could use the Simscape Foundation Library, which supports both mechanical and electrical domains. This allows you to represent masses, dampers, and springs as inductors, resistors, and capacitors by applying either the "Force-Voltage" or "Force-Current" analogy. I hope this helps.