Exposed Voltages for Solar Arrays

Hi,

I’m trying to set up some exposed voltages on the spacecraft. I need to set the solar array to either +v or -v (maybe 10 or 50) to see the impact on surface potential.

Having consulted the user manual, I thought it would be through the Nodes editor (page 42):

Screenshot 2021-01-13 at 08.36.08

I set a potential difference between node 0 (spacecraft) and node 1 (solar array) to 100v, but I see no affect on surface potential.

Is this correct or is there another way to set up exposed voltages?

Hi,
I guess that you have the spacecraft body on node 0 and the front face of the solar panel on node 1 and that the solar panel material is some kind of dielectric cover glass?
In this case the problem is that the potential bias you set is not between the spacecraft ground and the solar panel surface but between the ground and the rear face of the cover glass. Since this rear face is not exposed to plasma, it has no impact on particle collection and on the overall result. To polarize your solar panel (I guess you want to simulate the effect of collection on the cell interconnects) please use the appropriate device which is detailed in SPIS 6 doc.
Regards,
Sébastien