Comparative study of three methods for computing electric fields

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the calculation of electrostatic potentials and fields for realistic engineering problems. Three computational methods, the charge-simulation method, the finite-element method and the Monte Carlo method, have been programmed for practical use. To test their accuracy, the results obtained for a set of trial problems are compared. Examples are also given that illustrate the particular capabilities of each method, and their different advantages and disadvantages are discussed.