Description
A power sink is a Power Component that can be added to the power network and can consume power. The sink can be connected in parallel or series networks and will calculate its current and voltage based on the assumed power drop. The power drop is specified by the user and can be configured dynamically during the simulation. It is useful for having a fixed and known power drop whilst not requiring the user to understand the voltage, current and resistance requirements of the network.
Example Use Cases
- Consuming Power: The power sink will consume a fixed amount of power and can be a placeholder for a more complex power model on the Power Bus.
Module Implementation
A power sink is a component that inherits from the Physical Object class and will consume power from the network. It contains a Power value, which is the required power drop from the components, as well as a Zendir Voltage Drop, which is the desired voltage drop over the component expected when the network is functioning correctly and the power sink is acting as a perfect power dissipator. Additionally, there is an Is Active flag that can be enabled and disabled to quickly stop and enable the sink again.
Internal Components
The power sink functionality consists of an internal resistor, which has a variable resistance based on the values specified in the component. The calculated resistance, is calculated each tick using the combination of Ohm’s and the Power Law:
where is the desired power drop and is the nominal voltage for the drop. If the power is zero or the component is not active, the resistance is set to a fixed large value (1 TΩ).
Assumptions/Limitations
- Unless connected to a power bus, a power sink will not automatically affect any other power components on an entity. It must be wired together.
- Due to the limitations of the power sink, if the sink is drawing zero power, the resistance will be a large, but non-infinite, value, causing a tiny, non-zero, current to still trickle through the component.