Create an Electrical Condition

If you are solving a problem that includes electric current, you may specify the electrical contact condition at the boundary between two conducting solids or on the outer boundary of a conducting solid.

The possible types of an electrical condition are Contact Resistance, and Perfect Electrical Insulator.

The contact resistance can be specified either by selecting one of the Electrical Resistances available in the Engineering Database or by specifying it manually. Also you can select the contact layer material available in the Engineering Database and specify its thickness.

Restrictions and Limitations

This feature is available for the Electronics Cooling module users only.

Prerequisites

  • The Conduction option must be enabled on the Analysis Type tab of the General Settings or Wizard dialog.

Procedure

  1. Open the Electrical Condition  dialog:

    • On the ribbon, click Flow Simulation > Insert > Conditions > Electrical Condition.

    • On the toolbars, click Electrical Condition on the Flow Simulation Features toolbar.

    • In the menu, select Tools > Flow Simulation > Insert > Electrical Condition.

    • In the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, right-click the Electrical Conditions item and select Insert Electrical Condition.

  2. In the Type list select the desired electrical condition type:

    • Contact Resistance. Electrical contact resistance.

    • Perfect Electrical Insulator. Allows to prevent current from flowing through a conducting body.

  3. Under Selection, select faces on which you intend to specify the electrical condition in the graphics area (see “Selection List” for details).

    The selected faces appear in the Faces to Apply the Electrical Condition  list.

    You can also select components in the flyout FeatureManager design tree.

  4. If the selected type of electrical condition is Contact Resistance, select the way of definition under Value:

    • Resistance. The contact resistance is defined by the selecting its value from the Engineering Database.

      Under Electrical Resistance select the desired contact electrical resistance from the list of available electrical resistances values (for various materials) in the Engineering Database.

      If you want to add a new contact electrical resistance to the Engineering Database or edit an existing one click Create/Edit to open the Engineering Database.

      Note:

      The specified Electrical Resistance is distributed among the selected faces in proportion to the real areas of contacts between conductive solids.

    • Resistance (value). The contact resistance is defined manually.

      Under Electrical Resistance specify the Electrical Resistance  value.

      If you want to specify a formula dependency or a time-dependent value, click Dependency  to the right of the parameter value input box (see “Dependency” for details).

    • Material/thickness. The contact resistance is defined by specifying the contact layer material and its thickness:

      • Under Solid material select the desired material from the list of solid materials available in the Engineering Database.

        If you want to add a new solid material to the Engineering Database or edit an existing one click Create/Edit to open the Engineering Database.

      • Under Thickness specify Material Thickness .

        If you want to specify a time-dependent value, click Dependency  to the right of the parameter value input box (see “Dependency” for details).

    See “Contact Electrical Resistance” for details.

  5. Under Goals you can select goals to associate with the electrical condition.

    Those goals are created together with the electrical condition and remain connected with the same geometry.

  6. When creating a new electrical condition, in the Name Template box you can specify a template for its name.

    The default template is the <Type> placeholder, followed by <Number>, where <Type> is the electrical condition type and <Number> is the sequential number of the electrical condition in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree. When electrical condition is created, <Type> is replaced by the condition type (for instance, “Contact Resistance”) and <Number> is replaced by the sequential number of the electrical condition (for example, if the electrical condition named “Contact Resistance 1” already exists, the new electrical condition will be named “Contact Resistance 2” and so on). You can combine these standard elements in any order and add any appropriate characters to the template. To add a new standard element to the template, click the Type  or Number  button.

  7. Click OK .

    -or-

    Click Keep Visible  before clicking OK  to keep the dialog open and define more electrical conditions.

Results

The new Electrical Condition item appears in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree.

To edit the definition of an Electrical Condition, in the Flow Simulation Analysis tree, double-click the Electrical Condition item, or right-click the item and select Edit Definition.

Also you can use a callout in the graphics area to edit definition of an Electrical Condition (see “Feature Callout” for details).

Parent Topic: Electrical Conditions