Power Sink

Description

A Power Sink is a Physical Object that can be added to the power network to consume power. The sink can be connected in parallel or series configurations and calculates its resistance based on the desired power consumption and nominal voltage drop. It is useful for modeling a fixed power load without requiring the user to manually calculate resistance values.

Example Use Cases

Generic Load Modeling: Represent a fixed power load on the Power Bus without defining specific component behavior.
Placeholder for Complex Loads: Use as a stand-in for more detailed power models during early system design.
Dynamic Power Consumption: Adjust power draw during simulation to model variable loads.

Module Implementation

The power sink contains a Power Node Model and consumes power from the network based on user-defined parameters.

Parameters

NominalPower: The target power to be consumed by the sink in Watts.
NominalVoltageDrop: The expected voltage drop across the component when operating normally. Default is 12 V.
IsActive: Flag to enable or disable the sink. When disabled, the sink draws no power.
NetPower: The net power contribution to the bus in Watts. For a sink, this value is negative (consuming) or zero.

Internal Resistance

The sink models power consumption using an internal resistor with variable resistance. The resistance is calculated each tick using the relationship between power, voltage, and resistance:

R = \frac{V _{nominal}^{2}}{P}

where $P$ is the nominal power and $V_{nominal}$ is the nominal voltage drop. When the sink is inactive or the power is zero, the resistance is set to a large value ( $1 0^{12} Ω$ ) to effectively open the circuit.

Power Restoration

The sink tracks the previous nominal power value. If NominalPower is set to zero while the sink remains active, the previous value is automatically restored on the next update. This prevents accidental power loss when the power value is temporarily cleared.

Assumptions/Limitations

The sink must be connected to a Power Bus to participate in the power network.
When drawing zero power, a very small leakage current may still flow due to the finite (non-infinite) open-circuit resistance.
The sink assumes constant power behavior; actual voltage and current depend on the network solution.