Applied Voltage

An applied voltage can be applied to nodes or surfaces of a model.

What Does an Applied Voltage Do?

• A surface applied voltage applies nodal applied voltages to each node on the surface.
• An applied voltage is used to fix a node to a certain voltage throughout the analysis. This is done using a voltage boundary element. The voltage is transferred from the new node to the node on the model through an element with a conductance stiffness specified in the Stiffness field. The conductance is equal to the product of the stiffness and the difference of the magnitude of the applied voltage and the calculated voltage for that node. The voltage of the node on the model depends on the stiffness value. A high stiffness value causes the node on the model to be very close to the magnitude of the applied voltage. A low stiffness means that the voltage of the node on the model could be significantly lower than the magnitude of the applied voltage.
• If you select multiple nodes or surfaces to apply the applied voltage, each object has this voltage value applied to it.
• For an applied voltage to be used properly during the analysis, on the Analysis Parameters screen, General tab, assign a Boundary voltage multiplier. The product of the Boundary voltage multiplier and the Magnitude is the voltage value applied to the new node. If you have a multiplier of 0, a voltage of 0 is applied to the new node of the nodal applied voltage.

Apply Applied Voltage

If you have nodes or surfaces selected, right-click in the display area and select the Add pull-out menu. Click Nodal Applied Voltage or Surface Applied Voltage.

In the Magnitude field, specify the voltage to apply to each selected object. The value can be positive, zero, or negative. In the Stiffness field, specify the stiffness for the applied voltages. A large Stiffness value fixes a surface at a voltage equal to the Magnitude (2-3 orders of magnitude greater than the dielectric constant, permittivity, or conductance of your other materials).

Tip: See the comments under the Application of Loads and Constraints at Duplicate Vertices heading on the Loads and Constraints page for information about how nodal loads are applied at duplicate vertices.