Time averaged concentration calculations in pulse electrochemical machining

Simulation of the species concentrations during the Pulse Electrochemical Machining (PECM) process can provide information on system design and guidelines for practical use. In detailed numerical calculations the concentrations will be calculated simultaneously with the temperature due to mutual dependencies. The pulses that are applied to the PECM system have to be described on a time scale that can be orders of magnitude smaller than the physical time scales in the system. If the full detail of the applied pulses has to be taken into account, the time accurate calculation of the variables distributions evolutions in PECM can become a computationally very expensive procedure. In previous work (Smets et al. J Appl Electrochem 37(11):1345, 2007), a time averaging approach was introduced. Performing this, the timesteps used during the calculations are no longer dictated by the pulse characteristics. Using this approach, computationally very cheap, yet satisfying results can be obtained. This work focuses on the behaviour of the concentration evolution. The concentration and the temperature calculation have different requirements for optimal approximated calculations, and a compromise has to be found between them. An analysis is performed on a simplified model, which provides useful guidelines during simulations.