The thermistor: A problem in heat and current flow

The thermistor is an electrical device that can be used as a current surge protector. The basis of its operation is the temperature-dependent electrical conductivity that drops by 4 to 5 orders of magnitude over a temperature range of 100–200°C. In the present work the coupled heat and electrical current problems are examined with the conductivity modeled by a step function. A numerical scheme is suggested for the nonlinear coupled problem. Convergence of this scheme for some boundary conditions is demonstrated and some numerical results are given.