Electric Circuits

Electrical circuits are conducting loops of interconnected electrical components, such as batteries, power sources, resistors, and inductors.

In circuit analysis, the electrical components of a circuit are idealized using lumped circuit elements, which are defined by their number of terminals and by their voltage-current characteristic. Connections between the circuit elements define the conducting path and account for mutual interactions. At each time-step, the circuit solver determines the voltage and the electric current through each circuit element.

Circuit Elements and Connections

Circuit elements represent electrical sources or loads. Electrical sources are components that produce electric power, such as batteries or generators. Electrical loads are components that consume electric power, such as resistors and inductors.



Simcenter STAR-CCM+ provides several types of circuit elements. Each type allows you to define characteristic quantities of idealized electric components, such as voltage, current, resistance, or inductance. Depending on the type of circuit element, you can define these quantities:

  • manually, using scalar expressions or tabular data
  • automatically, using data computed by battery or electromagnetic solvers

For more information, see 电路元件参考.

In a circuit, the different circuit elements are connected by circuit connections. See Circuit Connections Reference.

Target Applications

In Simcenter STAR-CCM+, the Circuit model is activated when the Battery model is selected. Circuit elements are required for the RCR model, but do not need to be created to run thermal runaway models. The Circuit model can be optionally used in electromagnetic simulations:

  • In battery simulations, the Battery model simulates the electrical and thermal behavior of a battery module that is designed in Simcenter Battery Design Studio (see Batteries).

    To model the response of the battery to applied electrical loads, you connect the battery and loads in an electric circuit.

    See Creating Electric Circuits.

  • In electromagnetic simulations, electric machines and others are often coupled to an electric circuit.

    You can define circuit elements using field functions from the electromagnetic analysis. For example, you can use the electromotive force computed in a region as voltage source for the circuit. For electromagnetic simulations that involve excitation coils, you can define circuit elements using the resistance and inductance of a coil region.

    See 耦合线圈区域与线圈电路元件.