Initial Values
The Initial Values node sets the initial values for the electrolyte potential, the electric potential, and the electrolyte salt concentration.
For many electrochemical problems that use nonlinear electrode kinetics, such as Butler-Volmer kinetics, providing reasonable initial values can significantly improve solver convergence.
A good value for the Electric potential (SI unit: V) in electrode and porous electrode domains can usually be derived from the boundary conditions. For instance, if a boundary has been grounded or set to a cell potential, use that value as the initial value also in the adjacent domain. For the Electrolyte potential (SI unit: V) a good initial value is often the negative of the equilibrium potential of the grounded electrode.
The default initial Electrolyte salt concentration, 1·103 mol/m3, is a typical order of magnitude for common concentrated aqueous concentrated electrolytes.