PiecewiseLink Node

General Description

The PiecewiseLink node is an extension of Node that represents a non-linear Link with a piece wise cost function. This object is intended to model situations where there is a benefit of supplying certain flow rates but beyond a fixed limit there is a change in (or zero) cost. API Reference.

This Node is implemented using a compound node structure like so:

        | Separate Domain         |
Output -> Sublink 0 -> Sub Output -> Input
       -> Sublink 1 ---^
       ...             |
       -> Sublink n ---|

This means routes do not directly traverse this node due to the separate domain in the middle. Instead several new routes are made for each of the sublinks and connections to the Output/Input node. The reason for this breaking of the route is to avoid an geometric increase in the number of routes when multiple PiecewiseLinks are present in the same route.

Primary Attributes

Name	Description	Required
allocation penalty	The cost per unit flow via the node	Optional
max_flow	The maximum flow constraint on the node	Optional
min_flow	The minimum flow constraint on the node	Optional

Examples

coming soon...