Open AccessElectrostatic Breakdown Analysis using EMsolve and BEMSTER
Author(s) -
B.J. Fasenfest,
Donald R. White
Publication year - 2005
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/877855
Subject(s) - dielectric , electric field , finite element method , high voltage , boundary (topology) , voltage , space charge , boundary value problem , boundary element method , source code , field (mathematics) , code (set theory) , breakdown voltage , electrostatics , computer science , computational science , electrical engineering , engineering , physics , mathematics , mathematical analysis , structural engineering , programming language , set (abstract data type) , quantum mechanics , pure mathematics , electron
Computer simulations modeling electrostatic behavior were used to simulate dielectric breakdown problems. These simulations modeled composite dielectric and conducting structures to see how much voltage difference or charge accumulation could occur before dielectric breakdown occurred in an air region. Two different computer codes were used for the analysis; EMSolve and BEMSTER. EMSolve, an existing LLNL internal finite element code, requires that a complete volume mesh of the problem be constructed. BEMSTER, a boundary-element code, was developed from an extension of the FEMSTER libraries which power EMSolve. The boundary-integral code offers the advantages of solving for accumulated charge and maximum electric field directly, and of only requiring a surface mesh. However, because it does not automatically solve for the voltage and electric field everywhere in space, post-processing and visualization are slightly more difficult than with EMSolve. Both codes were compared to several analytical solutions, and then applied to the structures of interest. Both codes showed good agreement with the analytic solution and with each other