Cable Connector Topology

The concept of a cable connector was introduced in the previous section in the depiction of Figure 5.4.4. Many cable harnesses employ cable connectors to terminal boxes. The presence of cable connectors usually requires different impedance matrices to characterize the ends of cable branches where the connectors are employed. Different capacitance, inductance, resistance, and conductance matrices can be specified for connectors. The specification of connectors does not increase the length of the cable. Connectors are always associated with the last finite difference cell on the end of each meshed cable. If cable connectors are not specified, then the ends of each meshed cable assume the properties of the main portion of the cable.

There are numerous connector configurations. These configurations can significantly affect the cable system behavior. This is especially true if the connectors are employed at the ends of shields that possess interior conductors.

There are seven keywords associated with the cable connector topology section of the MHARNESS® input file. These keywords are listed below. • CONNECTOR CLOSED • CONNECTOR OPEN • CONNECTOR PINWIRE • CONNECTOR PIGTAIL • CONNECTOR PIGTAIL GROUNDED • CONNECTOR GROUNDED • CONNECTOR ABSENT

The use of these keywords is contingent upon how the cable physically terminates. The cable can terminate with an actual physical ending or in an MHARNESS junction. The table below provides a listing of the allowable connector topologies and the associated physical terminations. The entries in the table are presented in hierarchical order. For instance, “connector open” supersedes “connector closed” and “connector absent” supersedes “connector grounded”.

The topics associated with these keywords are discussed in separate sections below in order of appearance in the list above. How connector topologies interact with other definitions, such as, connector impedances and boundary conditions, is discussed in Section 5.14.