Describing perfect conductors

Definition

A perfect conductor in electrostatic fields is characterized by:

• a null volume density of the electric charge within the conductor. All the electric charge is distributed on the conductor surface.
• the electric field is null within the conductor, as well as its tangential component to the conductor surface.
• the electric potential is constant within the conductor, and its surface is an equipotential surface.

Massive perfect conductor

In Flux software, the massive perfect conductors are described by means of mixed regions, i.e. the combination of a material region and of a region known as non-material.

A “massive” perfect conductor region is a combination of:

• an inactive massive region

• an equipotential boundary (floating or fixed value of the electric potential)

The electric field is normal on the border.

The electric potential is not computed in the volume of the massive inactive region. Thus, it is useless to mesh this region.

Thin or filiform perfect conductor

A thin or filiform perfect conductor is reduced at the equipotential frontier (floating or fixed value of the electric potential). The electric field is normal on the border.

Description of a thin electrode in Flux

To describe a thin electrode in Flux, it is thus possible to use:

• a thin region of Perfect Conductor type (if the potential is constant in the space)
• a region of Imposed electric potential type (if the potential is not constant in the space)