31. THERMAL_SOURCE Namelist
31.1. Overview
The THERMAL_SOURCE namelist is used to define external volumetric heat sources (power per unit volume). This source is in addition to any other sources coming from other physics, such as a Joule heat source. Each instance of this namelist defines a source, and the final source is the sum of all such sources (subject to some limitations).
Two forms of sources \(q\) can be defined:
\(q(t,x) = f(t,x,T)\chi_S(x)\), where \(f\) is a user-defined function and \(S\) is a subdomain corresponding to one or more user-specified mesh cell sets. Here \(\chi_S\) is the characteristic function on \(S: \chi_S = 1\) for \(x \in S\) and \(\chi_S = 0\) for \(x \notin S\). Sources of this form can be summed as long as the interiors of their subdomains do not intersect.
\(q(t,x) = A(t)\Sigma_jq_j\chi_j(x)\), where \(A\) is a user-defined time-dependent prefactor, \(q_j\) is a constant source of mesh cell \(j\), and \(\chi_j\) is the characteristic function on cell \(j\). The collection of values {\(q_j\)} is read from a data file.