2D Electrical Film Current with Temperature Dependent Resistance Simulation

Product Feedback
1

Here is another application: I do a lot of 2D thick film heating design. These elements are typically rectangular and have lines of equal potential along two opposite sides i.e. One edge is 240V and the one opposite is ground (0V). The remaining edges are insulated. From time to time, I need to design elements that are not completely rectangular and need to determine the current flow through the film from one side to the other. This current density is difficult to predict because the resistance is temperature dependent and it is difficult to also predict lines of equal potential.

If I could simulate this situation, i.e. the current flow (density) and the local resistance, then I could calculate the heat generated on this heater. This could then be super imposed on the substrate material and the performance of the entire assembly could be simulated.

Is there a way that this can be modelled within the current offering of SimScale?

2

Hey John,

sounds like a really nice multiphysics application! With the current feature set of SimScale you can do the thermal part of the project, but the current flow is not covered so far. As SimScale is a simulation platform where we want to provide a widespread offering of solvers for a variety of physics, electrostatics and electromagnetics are definitely interesting features for our future development. Of course we will need to couple these solvers then with the heat transfer solver in order to cover the interdependency of the local resistance and the temperature (influenced by the generated heat flux), but as a platform we have all required tools at hand.
Although we can not help you with the current field so far, I will keep you updated on the topic, if you don’t mind.

All the best

Alex