Patent ID: 7010760

Claim:
A method executing on a processor employing digital models of flow processes, the method comprising: creating digital representations creating digital representations of at least two hierarchical nodes, each of the hierarchical nodes having associated therewith a respective dimensionality defining a number of dimensions of the respective hierarchical node, the respective dimensions of each of the hierarchical nodes having a defined order with respect to one another, each dimension having an associated size defining a number of members of the respective dimension; creating digital representations of a number of hierarchical edges defining connections between at least some of the hierarchical nodes, at least a first one of the hierarchical edges defining a connection between a first and a second one of the at least two hierarchical nodes; and for each of a number of pairs of hierarchical nodes connected by a respective shared one of the hierarchical edges, associating at least one of a number of match rules with the pair of hierarchical nodes, each of the match rules defining at least one matrix transformation between the hierarchical nodes of the respective pair, application of the matrix transformation to the members of the hierarchical nodes of the respective pair defining a resulting set of primitive nodes and primitive edges, where a first one of the number of match rules defines a first matrix transformation between the first and the second hierarchical nodes.