What is the use of ontology in conceptual modeling?

Modeling, especially scientific modeling refers to the process of generating a model as a conceptual representation of some phenomenon as discussed above. Typically a model will refer only to some aspects of the phenomenon in question, and two models of the same phenomenon may be essentially different, that is in which the difference is more than just a simple renaming. This may be due to differing requirements of the model's end users or to conceptual or esthetic differences by the modellers and decisions made during the modeling process. Esthetic considerations that may influence the structure of a model might be the modeller's preference for a reduced ontology, preferences regarding probabilistic models vis-a-vis deterministic ones, discrete vs continuous time etc. For this reason users of a model need to understand the model's original purpose and the assumptions of its validity. Having found a model for some desired aspect of reality, it can serve as the basis for simulation, the only way for non-invasive examination of physical reality besides real-world experiments.