Heat Sink
Purpose
Isotherm environment for placing components
Library
Thermal / Components
Description
The Heat Sink absorbs the thermal losses dissipated by the components within its boundaries. At the same time it defines an isotherm environment and propagates its temperature to the components which it encloses. To change the size of a Heat Sink, select it, then drag one of its selection handles.
With the parameter Number of terminals you can add and remove thermal connectors to the heat sink in order to connect it to an external thermal network. The connectors can be dragged along the edge of the heat sink with the middle mouse button. Alternatively, use the left mouse button while holding the Shift key. In order to remove a thermal connector, disconnect it, then reduce the Number of terminals. PLECS will not allow you to remove connected terminals.
For additional information see chapter Thermal Modeling.
Parameters
- Number of terminals
This parameter allows you to change the number of external thermal connectors of a heat sink. The default is
0.- Thermal capacitance
The value of the internal thermal capacitance, in \((\mathrm{J}/\mathrm{K})\). The default is
0.If the capacitance is set to zero, the heat sink must be connected to an external thermal capacitance or to a fixed temperature.
- Initial temperature
The initial temperature difference between the heat sink and the thermal reference at simulation start, in degrees Celsius \((^\circ\mathrm{C})\). If left blank or if the value is
nan, PLECS will initialize the value based on a thermal “DC” analysis, see Temperature Initialization.- Width
This parameter allows you to set the width of the internal thermal capacitance and the external terminals. The default is
1. A non-scalar heat sink can enclose only components that have the same width.
Probe Signals
- Temperature
The temperature difference between the heat sink and the thermal reference, in degrees Celsius \((^\circ\mathrm{C})\).