See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/333079125

Methods of Determining Potential Distribution

Research · May 2019

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19813.04325

CITATIONS READS

0 868

1 author:

Mudassar Sardar
University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore
1 PUBLICATION   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Methods of Determining Potential Distribution View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Mudassar Sardar on 14 May 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Methods of Determining Potential
Distribution
Mudassar Sardar (2015-EE-324)
Department of Electrical Engineering and Technology,
University of Engineering and Technology
Lahore, Punjab Pakistan
[email protected]

express physical phenomena among various numerical

Abstract— This document describes the different methods of calculation methods, FDM and FEM is very unique as it
the determining the potential distribution on a surface. The is applied exclusively to electric field calculations.
method included in this paper are Numerical Method, Fundamental difference between FDM and FEM is that,
Electrolytic Tank Method, Finite difference method, Finite FDM can be used for calculation of potential at nodes only
Element Method, Charge simulation Method, Surge Charge
but FEM can be used for calculation of potential at nodes
Simulation Method. Detailed description of every method is
described. The paper also includes a fair comparison
as well as within the elements. Calculation of electric field
between these different methods. The principle of each in 3D arrangement poses no essential problem by of the
method and the equations underlying each approach, with numerical methods if the field is given by Laplace’s
concrete implementation for this application, are briefly equation. The difficulty is that it usually required the
presented. Some conclusions are made on the basis of tedious work preparing the input of a large amount of
limitations and advantages of every method. errorless data associate with 3D conditions.
Numerical solution of EM problems started in the mid-
Keywords— Potential Distribution Determination, 1960s with the availability of modern high-speed digital
Numerical Method, Electrolytic Tank Method, Finite computers. Since then, considerable effort has been
difference method, Finite Element Method, Charge expended on solving practical, complex EM-related
simulation Method, Surge Charge Simulation Method. problems for which closed form analytic solutions are
either intractable or do not exist. The numerical approach
I. INTRODUCTION has the advantage of allowing the actual work to be
Calculation of electric fields with the aid of an carried out by operates without a knowledge of higher
computer is now a inevitable tool in various electricity- mathematics, with a resulting economy of labour on the
concerned technology, in particular, for analysing part of the highly trained personnel.
discharge phenomenon and designing high voltage
equipment’s. Electric and magnetic fields comprise two
II. NUMERICAL METHOD
components dealt with in one of the classical physics,
electromagnetism[1]. Calculation of electric fields is The numerical Method that are used to find
usually considered easier than that of magnetic ones from Protentional distribution are
two reasons. First, the electric field is expressed with a 1. Finite Difference Method
scalar potential at least in simple low frequency problems. 2. Finite Element Method
Secondly, non-linear characteristics are more often 3. Boundary Element Method
involved in magnetic fields. Compared with magnetic 4. Finite Volume Method
field, however, the calculation electric fields generally Here Finite Difference Method and Finite Element Method
require higher accuracy, because the highest electric field are discussed in detailed
stress on insulator is usually the most important and
decisive value in insulation design or discharge study. A. Finite Difference Method (FDM)
This is one of reason why the boundary-dividing methods Let us assume that voltage variation is two-dimensional
are preferred to the region-dividing ones, such as finite problem i.e. it varies in x-y plane and it does not vary
difference method (FDM) or finite element method along z-coordinate and let us divide the interior of a cross-
(FEM). Usually former method does not need numerical section of the region where the potential distribution is
differentiation to obtain field values. required into squares of length h on a side as shown in
A fundamental equation for the electric field is Fig- 4
Laplace’s equation or Poisson’s equation; perhaps the
simplest among many partial differential equations that
 As mentioned earlier the potentials at four corners of the
square are either known through computations or at start,
these correspond to boundary potentials which are known
a priori[2]. From equation it is clear that the potential at
point O is the average of the potential at the four
neighbouring points. The iterative method uses equation to
determine the potential at the corner of every square sub-
division in turn and then the process is repeated over the
Figure 1: A portion of a region containing a two- entire region until the difference in values is less than a
dimensional potential field divided prespecified value. The method is found suitable only for
two-dimensional symmetrical field where a direct solution
Assuming the region to be charge free is possible. In order to work for irregular three-dimensional
field so that these nodes are fixed upon boundaries,
becomes extremely difficult. Also, to solve for such fields
and for a two-dimensional situation as very large number of V (x, y) values of potential are
required which needs very large computer memory and
computation time and hence this method is normally not
recommended for a solution of such electrostatic problems.
For given equation

B. Finite Element Method (FEM)

This method is not based on seeking the direct solution of
The Laplace equation is given as Laplace equation as in case of FDM, instead in Finite
element method use is made of the fact that in an
electrostatic field the total energy enclosed in the whole
field region acquires a minimum value. This means that
Approximate values for these partial derivatives may this voltage distribution under given conditions of
be obtained in terms of the assumed values. (Here V0 is electrode surface should make the enclosed energy
to be obtained when V1, V2, V3 and V4 are known as function to be a minimum for a given dielectric volume v.
shown in Fig. 4 We know that electrostatic energy stored per unit
Now volume is given as

For a situation where electric field is not uniform, and

if it can be assumed uniform for a differential volume δv,
the electric energy over the complete volume is given as

From the gradients

Let us assume an isotropic dielectric medium and an

electrostatic field without any space charge. The potential
V would be determined by the boundaries formed by the
metal electrode surfaces.

Similarly,
 Here z is constant and WA represents the energy of V on x and y is assumed and hence the first order
density per unit area and the quantity within integral sign approximation gives
represents differential energy per elementary area dA =
dxdy.
In this method also the field between electrodes is
It is to be noted that for better accuracy of results higher
divided into discrete elements as in FDM. The shape of
order approximation e.g. square or cubic would be
these elements is chosen to be triangular for two-
required. Above equestion implies that electric field
dimensional representation and tetrahedron for three-
intensity within the element is constant and potentials at
dimensional field representation Fig. 2 & 3.
any point within the element are linearly distributed[3].
The potentials at nodes i, j and k are given as

Equation can be rewritten in matrix form as

By using Cramer’s rules, the coefficient a1, a2, a3 can

Figure 2: Triangular finite element e1 be obtained as follows

Where

Figure 3: Tetrahedron finite element

The shape and size of these finite elements is suitably

chosen and these are irregularly distributed within the
field. It is to be noted that wherever within the medium
higher electric stresses are expected e.g. corners and edges
of electrodes, triangles of smaller size should be chosen.
Let us consider an element e1 as shown in Fig. 3 as part where ∆e represents the area of the triangular element
of the total field having nodes i, j and k in anticlockwise under consideration. As mentioned earlier the nodes must
direction. There will be a large no. of such elements e1, e2 be numbered anticlockwise, else ∆e may turn out to be
…. eN. Having obtained the potential of the nodes of these negative. From equation the partial derivatives of V are
elements, the potential distribution within each element is
required to be obtained. For this normally a linear relation
 And For assessing electric field distribution in complex
three-dimensional situations, analytical methods are
unsuitable. Two other approaches in use are, experimental
analogue and numerical techniques. The numerical
We know that for obtaining the voltage at various nodes techniques have already been discussed in the previous
we have to minimise the energy within the whole system section. We now study analogue techniques especially the
for which derivatives of energies with respect to potential use of electrolytic tank.
distribution in each element is required. For the element e The potential distribution in conductive media in
under consideration, let We be the energy enclosed in the current equilibrium condition satisfies Laplace’s equation
element, then energy per unit length in the z-direction We the same as the electric fields in space-charge-free regions
/z denoted by W∆e can be obtained by above equation as i.e. ρv = 0. This fact makes it possible to obtain solutions
follows to many difficult electrostatic field problems by
constructing an analogous potential distribution in a
conductive medium where the potential and field
distributions can be measured directly. The conductors
and insulation arrangements can be represented using an
electrolytic tank. Due to its simplicity and accuracy this
method has been used for decades.
Similarly, finding partial derivatives of equation (1.21) A scale model of the electrode configuration is set up
with respect to Vj and Vk and following the procedure in a tank with insulating walls, filled with suitable
outlined above for partial derivative with respect to Vi and electrolyte e.g. tap water. An alternating voltage is the
arranging all the three equations in matrix from we have appropriate choice of working voltage to avoid
The solution of the above equations gives voltage polarisation voltage arising in the case of direct voltages.
distribution in the region. Of course, while seeking the The equipotential lines or equipotential areas in the case
final solution the boundary conditions must be satisfied of the electric field are measured by means of a probe
and hence this would require some iterative method for which can be fed with different voltages from a potential
the exact solution. divider via a null indicator[5].
The second approach could be to formulate energy Guiding the probe along the lines corresponding to the
function in terms of the unknown nodal voltage. This potential selected on the divider as well as their graphical
energy function is subjected to certain constraints in terms representation, can be undertaken manually or
of boundary conditions. The objective then is to min. [W] automatically in large systems. For the two-dimensional
subject to certain constraints. For this various field model, various dielectric constants can be simulated
mathematical programming techniques like, Fletcher by different heights of electrolyte as shown in Fig. 4 for a
Powell technique, Fletcher technique, direct search cylinder-plane configuration.
techniques, self scaling variable metric techniques can be
used. A computer program can be developed and accuracy
of the result can be obtained depending upon the
convergence criterion fed into the computer. A suitable
initial guess for the solution can always be made
depending upon the system configuration and during
every iteration the voltage can be updated till all the
boundary conditions are satisfied and the energy function
is minimised that is when the change in the energy
function between two consecutive iterations is less than a
prespecified value.
The finite element method is useful for estimating
electric fields at highly curved and thin electrode surfaces
with composite dielectric materials especially when the Figure 4: Simulation of a cylinder-plane configuration in
electric fields are uniform or weakly non-uniform and can the electrolytic tank (Original)
be expressed in two-dimensional geometries. The method
is normally not recommended for three-dimensional non-
uniform fields.

III. ELECTROLYTIC TANK METHOD

 conductor potential Vc which is known a priori. Suppose
qi is one of the fictitious charges and Vi is the potential of
any point Pi in space which is independent of the
coordinate system chosen, the total potential Vi due to all
the charges is given as

where pij are known as ‘‘potential coefficient’’ which

are to be determined for different types of charges by
Figure 5: Simulation of a cylinder-plane configuration in using Laplace’s equation. We know that potential at a
the electrolytic tank (ε1 = 2ε2)
point P at a distance ‘a’ from a point charge q is given as
Three-dimensional fields with rotational symmetry can
be readily simulated in a wedge-shaped tank whereas for
fields with no rotational symmetry one has to resort to
much more complex forms of three-dimensional Similarly, these coefficients for linear and ring or
simulation. circular charges can also be obtained. It is found these are
Equipotential boundaries are represented in the tank by also dependent upon various distance of these charges
specially formed sheets of metal. For example, a single from the point under consideration where potential is to
dielectric problem such as a three-core cable may be be obtained and the permittivity of the medium as in case
represented using a flat tank as shown in Fig. 6 Different of a point charge and hence potential coefficients are
permittivity is represented by electrolytes of different constant number and hence the potential due to various
conductivities separated by special partitions. Otherwise, types of charges are a linear function of charges and this
the tank base can be specially shaped. is how we get the potential at a point due to various
charges as an algebraic sum of potential due to individual
charges.
A few contour points must also be taken at the electrode
boundaries also and the potential due to the simulated
charge system should be obtained at these points and this
should correspond to the equipotential or else, the type
and location of charges should be changed to acquire the
desired shape and the given potential. Suppose we take
‘n’ number of contour points and n no. of charges, the
following set of equations can be written as
Figure 6: Electrolytic tank model of a three-core cable
represented at the instant

IV. CHARGE SIMULATION METHOD (CSM)

As suggested by the name itself, in this method, the
distributed charges on the surface of a conductor
electrode or dielectric interfaces is simulated by replacing
these charges by n discrete fictitious individual charges The solution of these equations gives the magnitude of
arranged suitably inside the conductor or outside the space the individual charges and which corresponds to electrode
in which the field is to be computed. These charges could potential (V1 ....... Vn ) at the given discrete points. Next,
be in the form of point, line or ring, depending upon the it is necessary to check whether the type and location of
shape of the electrode under consideration. It could be a charges as obtained from the solution of equation (1.28)
suitable combination of these fictitious charges. The satisfies the actual boundary conditions every where on
position and type of simulation charges are to be the electrode surfaces. It is just possible that at certain
determined first and then the field on the electrode surface check points the charges may not satisfy the potential at
is determined by the potential function of these individual those points. This check for individual point is carried out
charges. In order to determine the magnitude of these using equation (1.26). If simulation does not meet the
charges n no. of points are chosen on the surface of the accuracy criterion, the procedure is repeated by changing
conductor. These points are known as “contour points’’. either the number or type or location or all, of the
The sum of the potentials due to fictitious charge simulation charges till adequate charge system
distribution at any contour points should correspond to the
(simulation) is obtained. Once, this is achieved, potential composite dielectric medium makes it a suitable method
or electric field intensity at any point can be obtained. for field estimation. The computation time is much less as
compared to FDM and FEM.
The field intensity at a point due to various charges is However, it is difficult to apply this method for thin
obtained by vector addition of intensity due to individual electrodes e.g. foils, plates or coatings as some minimum
charges at that point. However, it is desirable to obtain the gap distance between the location of a charge and
individual directional components of field intensity electrode contours is required. Also, it is found difficult to
separately. In cartesion coordinate system, the component apply this method for electrodes with highly irregular and
of electric field intensity along x-direction for n number complicated boundaries with sharp edges etc.
of charges is given as However, as mentioned earlier a good experience of
selecting type and location of simulation charge may
solve some of these problems.
An improved version of CSM known as surface charge
simulation method (SCSM) described below is used to
overcome the problem faced in CSM.
where (f ij) x are known as field intensity coefficients in
x-direction. V. SURFACE CHARGE SIMULATION METHOD (SCSM)

In this method it is very important to select a suitable Numerical simulations of physical processes generally
type of simulation charges and their location for faster involve solving some differential equation on a
convergence of the solution e.g. for cylindrical electrodes computational domain too complicated to solve
finite line charges are suitable, spherical electrodes have analytically. Solving simple systems by “hand” is quite
point charges or ring charges as suitable charges. possible in one-dimension. But things get more
However, for fields with axial symmetry having projected complicated as you go to higher dimensions. If the domain
circular structures, ring charges are found better. has a nice shape – that is, if it’s rectangular or cylindrical
Experience of working on such problems certainly will in nature – you may be able to solve it analytically using
play an important role for better and faster selection. The techniques such as separation of variables. But as you start
procedure for CSM is summarised as follows: introducing irregularities in the boundary or in the forcing
1. . Choose a suitable type and location of function, things start getting hairy really soon. In that case,
simulation charges within the electrode going to a numerical solution is the only viable option[6].
system.
2. Select some contour point on the surface of Here a suitably distributed surface charge is used to
the electrodes. A relatively larger no. of simulate the complete equipotential surface i.e. the
contour points should be selected on the electrode contour since the surface charge is located on the
curved or corner points of the electrode contour surface itself. In actual practice the existing
3. Calculate the pij for different charges and surface charge on the electrode configuration is simulated
locations (contour points) and assemble in the by integration of ring charges placed on the electrode
form of a matrix. contour and dielectric boundaries. This results into a
4. Obtain inverse of this matrix and calculate the physically correct reproduction of the whole electrode
magnitude of charges (simulation). configuration.
5. Test whether the solution so obtained is
feasible or not by selecting some check points The electrode contours are segmented as shown in Fig.7
on the conductor surface. If the solution is and to each segment ‘S’ a surface charge density is
feasible stop and calculate the electric field assigned by a given function Sk (x) which could be a first-
intensity at requisite point. If not, repeat the degree approximation or a polynomial as follows
procedure by either changing the type or
location of the simulation charges.
CSM has proved quite useful for estimation of electric
field intensity for two and three-dimensional fields both
with or without axial symmetry. It is a simple method and
is found computationally efficient and provides accurate
results.

The simplicity with which CSM takes care of curved

and rounded surfaces of electrodes or interfaces of
 Now substituting equation (1.29 a) in equation (1.30),
we have

Since each segment is divided into m intervals as

shown in Fig. 1.5, equation (1.31) can be rewritten as

Figure 7: Segmented contour path with assigned σ

The potential coefficient pil are similar to the
The individual segments along the contour path can be
coefficients derived from a single concentrated charge in
represented as shown in Fig. 8
CSM. This coefficient, therefore, can be obtained for a
line charge or by solving elliptical integral for a ring
charge. The electric field intensity at any contour point i
due to kth contour segment is given as

where fik are the field intensity coefficients.

As discussed, this method requires a large number of
elements, normally more than 2500, independent of the
surface shape and thus require large computational
efforts. Also, due to certain practical difficulties this
Figure 8: Representation of a segment Sk(x) method is not used as frequently as other numerical
methods for estimation of electric fields.
With the representation the contour surface is
reproduced accurately and exactly and thus the continuity
of charge between the segments is assumed. Surface
charges can be simulated either by line or ring charges. VI. COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT METHODS
Ring charge simulation is found to be more useful for Out of the various techniques FDM is the simplest to
fields with symmetry of rotation. Each contour segment is compute and understand but the computation effort and
assigned m no. of charges and the potential due to a charge computer memory requirements are the highest. Also,
qj , is given by equation and is rewritten here since all difference equations are approximation to the
actual field conditions, the final solution may have
considerable error.
Finite element method is a general method and has been
used for almost all fields of engineering. The method is
The potential coefficient pik for a contour point i due to suitable for estimating fields at highly curved and thin
kth contour segment is obtained as shown in Fig. 9 and is electrode surfaces with different dielectric materials.
given as However, this method is more useful for uniform or
weakly non-uniform fields and which can be represented
by two-dimensional geometries. This method is
recommended for three-dimensional complicated field
configurations.
Charge Simulation Method (CSM) is considered to be
one of the most superior and acceptable method for two
Figure 9: Concentrated charges to simulate surface charges
and three-dimensional configuration with more than one
dielectric and with electrode systems of any desired shape
since this method is based on minimization of the energy
function which could be subjected to any operating
constraints e.g. environmental condition, it has proved to
be highly accurate method. Because of inherent features [5] Reister, M. Weib P. “Computation of electric
of the technique, this method also helps in optimising fields by use of surface charge simulation
electrode configuration. In this electrode configuration method”, Int. Symp. on HV Engg. Athens 1983,
optimisation problems, the objective is to have field Report 11.06.
intensity as low as possible subject to the condition that a
constant field intensity exists on the complete electrode [6] Salama, M. M. et al. (1984). Methods of
surface. With this optimisation, a higher life expectancy calculation of field stresses in a three core power
of high voltage equipments can be achieved. cable. IEEE Trans. On PAS, PAS-103(12), 3434-
However, as mentioned earlier this method can not be 3441.
used for thin electrodes e.g. foils, plates or coatings due to
the requirement of a minimum gap distance between the
location of a charge and electrode contour. Also, this
method is not suitable for highly irregular electrode
boundaries.
The surface charge simulation method even though
takes into account the actual surface charge distribution
on the electrode surface, this method is not normally
recommended for solution of field problem due to some
practical difficulties.
.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
The study highlighted the possibility of using
alternative methods for modelling the electromagnetic
field, each method having its advantages. Any of
Numerical Method can be implemented in own computer
programs that can be viable alternatives to commercial
software, especially for some specific applications. An
important difference between the various method is that
the FDM and FEM can be used only for bounded field
whereas CSM and SCMS can also be used for unbounded
fields The differences in choosing the method consist in
the facilities in the obtaining and the implementation of
the discretised equations (at FVM and FDM).

REFERENCE
[1] S.M.E. Haque, M.G. Rasul, M.M.K. Khan, A.V.
Deev, N. Subaschandar, A Numerical Model of an
Electrostatic Precipitator, Proceedings of 16th
Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference,
Crowne Plaza, Gold Coast, Australia, 2-7
December 2007, pp. 1050-1054

[2] Welly, J. D. “Optimisation of Electrode Contours

in High Voltage Equipment Using Circular
Contour Elements”, Int. Symp. on HV Engg.,
Braunschweig, 1987.

[3] Kuffel, E. and W.S. Zaengl, High Voltage

Engineering—Fundamentals, Pergamon Press,
1984.
[4] P. Zamankhan, G. Ahmadi and F. G. Fan,
Coupling Effects of the Flow and Electric Fields
in Electrostatic Precipitators, J. Appl. Phys, Vol.
96, No. 12, 2004, pp. 7002-7010
 The version of this template is V2. Most of the
formatting instructions in this document have been
compiled by Causal Productions from the IEEE LaTeX
style files. Causal Productions offers both A4 templates
and US Letter templates for LaTeX and Microsoft Word.
The LaTeX templates depend on the official IEEEtran.cls
and IEEEtran.bst files, whereas the Microsoft Word
templates are self-contained. Causal Productions has used
its best efforts to ensure that the templates have the same
appearance.
REFERENCE

View publication stats