Example9 Plating Analysis(Plating a Device in the Bath)

General

Simulation model is created which will be immersed in the plating bath and plated.

By modeling the anode and cathode, distribution of electric potential at the electrodes can be taken into account.

Explanation of how to create the model using plating wall will be given at the end of this Exercise.

Unless specified in the list below, the default conditions will be applied.

Analysis Space

Item	Setting
Analysis Space	3D
Model unit	mm

Analysis Conditions

The material is conductor for the plating analysis.

Select the [Perform the plating analysis] option.

Item	Setting
Solver	Electric Field Analysis [Coulomb]
Analysis Type	Static analysis
Material	Conductor
Options	Select Perform the plating analysis Select Calculate the plating thickness Plating time: 300 [s]
Meshing Setup	General mesh size: 6.0 [mm]^1 Meshing Control Select Place middle nodes on curves^2 Tessellations of Periodic Surface – Minimum number of tessellations 12^*2
Matrix Solver Type	Direct method^*3

*1: Mesh size of 6.0mm is set as the simulation accuracy will not be enough with the automatically-set mesh size of 12.0mm.

*2: By this setting, the curved face can be meshed more smoothly.
See [Meshing Control] for the detail.

*3: In the electric field analysis, if Automatic is selected for the Matrix Solver Type, the iterative method is used.
In this Exercise, Direct Method is selected as it converges faster than Iterative Method.

Graphical Objects

Box body (green) is the plating solution. As the target object for plating, a disc part (yellow) is placed in the box.

The disc part is a cathode. Anodes (red) are placed on both sides of the disc part.
Assuming that the protruding portion of the cylinder on top of the anodes are connected to the current power source, electric walls V1 and V2 are set on the anodes.
The conductor (blue) is connected to the disc part. It is for supporting the disc part as well as for the current flow.
The electric wall GND is set on the tip of the conductor assuming it is connected to the ground.

Body Attributes and Materials

Create solid bodies for the plating bath, the anodes, the disc part (cathode), and supporter of the disc part (conductor). Body attributes are plating solution and metal.

Body Number/Type	Body Attribute Name	Material Name
3/Solid	Cathode	Metal
9/Solid	Anode	Metal
10/Solid	Anode	Metal
11/Solid	Cathode	Metal
12/Solid	Plating Solution	Solution

The body attribute is set as follows.

Body Attribute Name

Plating Tab

Anode

Type of Plating Body: Anode

Overvoltage Type: Linear

a1[V]	0.0
a2[Vm²/A]	5.0×10^-5

Cathode

Type of Plating Body: Cathode

Extracted Metal Setting
Conductivity	50×10⁶ [S/m]
Electrochemical equivalent	100×10^-9 [kg/(As)]
Density	10×10³ [kg/m³]
Extraction efficiency	1.0×10⁰

Overvoltage Type: Tafel’s Law

a1[V]	5.0×10^-2
a2[Vm²/A]	1.0×10^-1

Plating Solution

Type of Plating Body: Plating Solution

The material properties are set as follows.

Material Name

Conductivity Tab

Metal

Conductivity Type: Conductor

Conductivity: 10×10⁶ [S/m]

Solution

Conductivity Type: Conductor

Conductivity: 10 [S/m]

Boundary Condition

The boundary conditions are set as follows.

Boundary Condition Name/Topology	Tab	Boundary Condition Type	Setting
Ground/Face	Electric	Electric wall	Ground
V1/Face	Electric	Electric wall	Current 1A
V2/Face	Electric	Electric wall	Current 1A

Results

Current density of the plating solution is shown in the Figure 1.
All bodies except plating solution body are not shown because
current density of the plating solution cannot be seen due to the current density of electrodes if the electrode bodies are shown.

The current from the anodes is observed to flow to the cathode which consists of the disc part and the supporting body.

Figure 1 The distribution of the current density in the plating solution

Between the bodies with attributes of electrodes (anode and cathode) and the plating solution,
a body with body attribute name of RESERVED_dual is automatically created.
The vector field (electric field or current density) of this body is invalid.
Hide the body with attribute name of RESERVED_dual before confirming the field.
Please enter.

In the Figure 2, the current density (normal component) of the disc part’s surface is shown. In the Figure 3, the extracted plating thickness of the disc part is shown.
Both are shown in the contour and only disc part body is shown.
The Figures below, you are seeing the side having a supporting body.
The supporting body is placed upward from the center.
In the Figure 2, you can see the current density at the upper area of the part is small due to the blocked current by the supporting body.
Figure 3 shows that the plating thickness is distributed according to the current density distribution.

Figure 2 Current density (normal component) of the surface of the disc part

Figure 3 The extracted plating thickness of the disc part

The contour of the voltage of one of the anodes is shown in the Figure 4.
You can see that there is voltage distribution in the anode and the distribution is taken into account in the analysis.

Figure 4 The voltage distribution of the anode

Model with plating wall

In this exercise, the bodies are created for anode and cathode.
The merit of doing so is voltage distribution in the electrodes can be taken into account.
It, however, increases the number of meshes according to the number of electrodes and takes longer time to simulate.
If the plating wall instead of the electrode is used for the boundary condition, though the voltage distribution in the electrode cannot be taken into account,
the calculation time is expected to be shorter because the electrode meshing is not required.

Figure 5 shows the model with the plating wall replacing the electric wall.
The plating solution body is cut out and hollow at where the disc part is supposed to be.

See other Electric Analysis examples.