EERI313

Practical 1
By:

Herman Fourie 37965824

North-Ist University, Potchefstroom Campus

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Submitted in pursuit of:

Bachelor’s Degree in
Electric-and-Electronic Engineering
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Date: 16 March 2024

Table of Contents

Table of figures: ........................................................................... 1

List of tables: ............................................................................. 1

1. Overview. ............................................................................. 2

1.1. FDM in Excel. ....................................................................... 2

1.2. The FEMM Simulation. ................................................................ 2

1.3. Calculations and Conclusions. ....................................................... 2

1.4. Constants and Variables. ............................................................ 2

2. FDM in Excel. ......................................................................... 3

3. The FEMM Simulation. .................................................................. 5

4. Calculations and Conclusions. ......................................................... 7

4.1. Capacitance. ........................................................................ 7

4.1.1 Section I ....................................................................... 8

4.1.2 Section II ...................................................................... 8

4.1.3 Section III ..................................................................... 8

4.1.4 Section IV ...................................................................... 8

4.1.5 Total Equivalent Capacitance. ................................................... 8

4.2. Total Stored Energy. ................................................................ 9

4.3. Conclusions ......................................................................... 9

References ................................................................................. 10
Page 1 of 12

Table of figures:
FIGURE 1. DEFINITIONS FOR THE X- Y- AND Z-DIRECTIONS. ............................................................................................................................................ 2
FIGURE 2. THE FDM IN EXCEL. ............................................................................................................................................................................... 3
FIGURE 3. THE FEMM SIMULATION. ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
FIGURE 4. BREAKING THE DIELECTRIC INTO DIFFERENT SECTIONS. .................................................................................................................................... 7

List of tables:
TABLE 1. SOME CONSTANTS AND VARIABLES THAT WERE REFERRED TO IN THIS REPORT........................................................................................................ 2
TABLE 2. COMMON DIELECTRIC MATERIALS FOR SUPER-CAPACITORS. ............................................................................................................................. 9
Page 2 of 12

1. Overview.

During this practical I had to design, and analyse, a 2-plate capacitor with a dielectric.

1.1. FDM in Excel.

Using the Finite Difference Method (FDM), one can manually calculate the voltages throughout
any capacitor’s dielectric. The more nodes one chooses, the more accurate the result will be.
This is a numerical method of approximating the electrostatic-field inside a capacitor’s
dielectric.

Using FDM, I had to approximate the electrostatic-field inside our capacitor’s dielectric. And,
in order to make the result as accurate as possible, I used over 1000 nodes, and calculated the
results using Excel.

1.2. The FEMM Simulation.

In order to check whether out FDM approximations are accurate within reason, I simulated the
result in the FEMM software, and compared the results.

1.3. Calculations and Conclusions.

Using the data from the simulations, further calculations and conclusions shall be made.

1.4. Constants and Variables.

Figure 1. Definitions for the x- y- and z-directions.

Table 1. Some Constants and Variables that were referred to in this report.

Name Symbol
Capacitance. 𝐶
Electric-Permittivity of Free-Space. 𝜖0
Relative Electric-Permittivity. 𝜖𝑟
Capacitor’s Width (x-direction). 𝑤
Capacitor’s Length (y-direction). 𝐿
Capacitor’s Depth (z-direction). 𝑑
Area. 𝐴
Charge. 𝑄
Voltage 𝑉
Page 3 of 12

2. FDM in Excel.

Figure 2. The FDM in Excel.

As may be seen in Figure 1, is our unique capacitor design. A voltage of “1V” was applied to
a) both sides of the triangles, and
b) the flat surface in-between the 2 triangles.
A voltage of “0V” was applied to the semi-circle at the bottom of the capacitor. Those are the
capacitor’s 2 charged plates. Everything in-between those 2 charged capacitor-plates, is its
dielectric.

Using FDM, I was able to calculate the voltages throughout the dielectric, and consequently ire
able to simulate the electrostatic-fields throughout the dielectric.
Page 4 of 12

The implementation of FDM, in Excel, was fairly straight-forward. Each node’s voltage was
defined as the mean of the 4 neighbouring nodes’ voltages.
𝐴2 +𝐶2 +𝐵1 +𝐵3 𝐵2 +𝐷2 +𝐶1 +𝐶3
E.g., 𝐵2 = , 𝐶2 = , etc.
4 4

And, only the 2 plates’ node-voltages ire defined as “1V” and “0V”, at the top and bottom,
respectively.

Using conditional formatting, based on the nodes’ values, colour-coding was applied in order
to make it easier to visualise the shapes and values of the electrostatic-fields withing the
capacitor’s dielectric. The colour-coding scale may be viewed in Figure 1.
Page 5 of 12

3. The FEMM Simulation.

Figure 3. The FEMM Simulation.

Re-drawing the same shape in FEMM and applying the appropriate voltages at the appropriate
locations (as discussed earlier), I was able to re-create similar results as those that ire
seen when using FDM.

In addition to displaying the voltages throughout the capacitor’s dielectric, FEMM was also
able to display the equipotential lines throughout the dielectric (the voltages at all points
on an equipotential line is the same).
Page 6 of 12

By definition, electric-field lines are always perpendicular to equipotential lines. In FEMM,

I as able to show the electric-field lines throughout the dielectric, as arrows. The arrows
pointed in the direction the E-field vector, and the relative lengths of these arrows indicate
the relative strength of the electric-field at different locations.
Page 7 of 12

4. Calculations and Conclusions.

Figure 4. Breaking the dielectric into different sections.

4.1. Capacitance.

As may be seen, in Figure 3, I have broken the capacitor’s dielectric into different sections
(“I” to “IV”). The capacitor has a “depth” (into the page) of 𝐿, and an electric permittivity
of 𝜖0 , since its dielectric is air.
Page 8 of 12

4.1.1 Section I

Since there is no voltage-drop over this section, the capacitance is (virtually) non-existent
[1].

4.1.2 Section II

Since the
a) electric-field lines enter Section II in a perpendicular manner;
b) electric-field lines exit Section II in a perpendicular manner; and
c) the areas of the top- and bottom-plates, of Section II, are the same,
Section II may be regarded as a parallel-plate capacitor [1].

𝑄
𝐶2 =
𝑉
𝐴
= 𝜖0
𝑑
13∙10−3 ∙𝐿
= 𝜖0
7.2∙10−3

≈ (𝟏𝟓. 𝟗𝟗)(𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 )(𝑳) 𝑭

4.1.3 Section III

13
𝐶3 = 𝜖0 𝐿
5.1

≈ (𝟐𝟐. 𝟓𝟕)(𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 )(𝑳) 𝑭

4.1.4 Section IV

2𝜋
𝐶4 = 𝜖0 𝑟 𝐿
ln(𝑟2 )
1
2𝜋
= 𝜖0 13 𝐿
ln( 2 )

≈ (𝟐𝟗. 𝟕𝟐)(𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 )(𝑳) 𝑭

4.1.5 Total Equivalent Capacitance.

1 1 1 −1
𝐶𝑒𝑞 =[ + + ] [2]
𝐶2 𝐶3 𝐶4

≈ (𝟕. 𝟏𝟐)(𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 )(𝑳) 𝑭

Page 9 of 12

4.2. Total Stored Energy.

1
𝑊𝐸 = 𝐶𝑉 2 [3]
2

≈ (𝟑. 𝟓𝟔)(𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 )(𝑳) 𝑱

4.3. Conclusions

Since
𝑄 𝑄 𝑤
𝐶 =𝜖 = 𝜖𝑟 𝜖0 = 𝜖𝑟 𝜖0 ∙ 𝐿, [2]
𝑉 𝑉 𝑑

one may conclude that capacitance will

a) increase proportionally with 𝜖𝑟 , 𝑤, and 𝐿; and, will
b) increase hyperbolically with a decrease in 𝑑.

Table 2. Common Dielectric Materials for Super-Capacitors.

Dielectric Material 𝜖𝑟
𝑃𝑏𝑀𝑔𝑁𝑏𝑂3 + 𝑃𝑏𝑇𝑖𝑂3 22 600
𝑃𝑏𝐿𝑎𝑍𝑟𝑇𝑖𝑂3 1 000
𝐵𝑎𝑆𝑟𝑇𝑖𝑂3 300
Page 10 of 12

References

[1] D. J. Griffiths, Introduction to Electrodynamics, 4th ed., Glenview: Pearson Education,

Inc., 2013.

[2] B. S. Guru and H. R. Hiziroglu, Electric Machinery and Transformers, 3rd ed., New York:
Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001.

[3] J. W. Nilsson and S. A. Riedel, Electric Circuits, 11th Global ed., United Kingdom: Pearson
Education Limited, 2020.

[4] W. H. Hayt and J. A. Buck, Engineering Electromagentics., 9th ed., New York, NY: McGraw-
Hill Education., 2019.