I wanted to ask for some clarification on the circuit definition of a spacecraft model. Is a spacecraft and its components implicitly connected together and all floating together relative to ambient plasma? If so, if I wanted to model components that are disconnected from a spacecraft electrically, do I need to define a high value resistor between them to simulate this (e.g. In the circuit editor R 0 1 1EX)?
Vice versa, if they are explicitly connected (I’m assuming by the circuit editor) do I need to provide a 0V potential difference (V 0 X 0) to connect/ground them?
Hi Joseph. Currents on an element flows through the surface (in SPIS modeled by SRE, surface resistivity) to connected elements and through the volume of the material (in SPIS, modeled by its thickness and BUC, bulk capacitance) to the elements ground.
How the element’s ground is coupled to other elements is handled explicitly through it’s electrical node. If they share electrical node, they are grounded to each other, if they are not, you can model their connection via the circuitry.
That said, the title of the software is spacecraft-plasma interaction, so there are more things than just simple circuity at play.
“if I wanted to model components that are disconnected from a spacecraft electrically, do I need to define a high value resistor between them to simulate this (e.g. In the circuit editor R 0 1 1EX)?”
No. Keep them at different electrical nodes and either physically disconnect them or use a large SRE.
To connect (short) elements ground to each other, either let them share a common electrical ground, or use “V n1 n2 0” in the circuitry scheme. Both are equivalent.