Using SysML ItemFlow on an Association to show compatibility with a physical flow

Gallery
Tutorial

There is now also a BIG REFERENCE CARD on ItemFlows showing how to use them to capture communication views in various SysML diagrams:


Apart from showing typical flows (packets, messages, requests) on "communication" Associations between Blocks in BDDs (which Associations may then be used to Type Connectors in IBDs), one use for a SysML ItemFlow on an Association is to indicate compatibility with FlowProperty items on the associated blocks.

This example is for physical flows, but the same principle works for representing exchange of requests, messages, protocol-like signals etc. if flow properties are used for them.

Click on the image to view it full size

The example happens to use ValueTypes as the conveyed Classifiers, we could also in SysMLv1 have used a Block or a Signal.

The ItemFlow on the Association uses Water, which is compatible with type Liquid of each the FlowProperty defined on the Associated blocks.

However, is it is usually better to use an ItemFlow on a Connector in a context IBD for this purpose of restricting the type of flow through to a more specific sub-type, even without an 'itemProperty', in which case one might have the more general Liquid ItemFlow on an Association in a general BDD and a more specific Water ItemFlow on a Connector in a particular context IBD.

Note that an an 'itemProperty' is optional and may only be used for an ItemFlow on a Connector in an IBD, not on an Association in a BDD:

The main power of ItemFlow comes when one indeed uses an itemProperty as shown next

Up next
Notes
Snippets (quotes/extracts)
Visit also
Visit also (backlinks)
Related slides (includes other tutorials)
Related slides (backlinks, includes other tutorials)