Potential source is a conductance that also forces a pressure rise.

GunnsFluidPotential is the most basic example. Others deriving from it are GunnsFluidImpeller, GunnsGasFan, GunnsLiquidCentrifugalPump. Also some network-network interface links like GunnsFluidShadow and GunnsFluidExternalDemand.

A detailed description of the how potential source effect works is here.

The link’s mSourcePressure term is the ideal pressure rise and is generally an input to the link. Some links get fancy and calculate their own source pressure from other factors. The GunnsGasFan, for instance, internally predicts the intersection between the fan’s performance curve and the curve of the system it is flowing in, and makes its source pressure approach that intersection.

You can use it to create a boundary pressure condition in a network. Say your fluid system is terrestrial and its outermost “ambient” pressure is the local planetary atmosphere at some non-zero pressure. In this case, the Ground node (perfect vacuum) is not where you want to send your various overboard flows like leaks, etc because the delta-pressure across these overboard flows would be wrong so you’d get the wrong flow rate. So, add a network node and connect a GunnsFluidPotential between Ground and it, give the potential link a large conductance so it acts like an ideal pressure source, and drive its mSourcePressure term with the atmospheric pressure. This could be a constant value or you could change it in runtime if you want by driving it from an atmosphere environment model, etc. Then, attach all overboard flow links to that node instead of Ground.

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