title: Computer simulations of isolated conductors in electrostatic equilibrium.
abstract: A computer simulation model is introduced to study the characteristics of isolated conductors in electrostatic equilibrium. Drawing an analogy between electrons and how they move to the surface of isolated conductors, we randomly initialize a large number of particles inside a small region at the center of simulated conductors and advance them according to their forces of repulsion. By use of optimized numerical techniques of the finite-size particle method associated with Poisson's equation, the particles are quickly advanced using a fast Fourier transform and their charge is efficiently shared using the clouds-in-cells method. The particle populations in the simulations range from 50x10;{3} to 1x10;{6} that move in various computation domains equal to 128x128 , 256x256 , and 512x512 grids. When the particles come to an electrostatic equilibrium, they lie on the boundaries of the simulated conductors, from which the equilibrium properties are obtained. Consistent with the theory of electrostatics and charged conductors, we found that the particles move in response to the conductor geometry in such a way that the electrostatic energy is minimized. Good approximation results for the equilibrium properties were obtained using the proposed computer simulation model.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Engineering IDP, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095-1721, USA. emwave@ucla.edu
authors.forename: Herng-Hua
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D015233:Models, Statistical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012984:Software; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods; D055672:Static Electricity; D013499:Surface Properties