ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the mechanics of the numerical field solution: setting up a mesh, assigning material properties, dealing with boundaries, and solving the equations to find the electrostatic potential at the vertex points. It covers the creation of regular meshes in three dimensions. Here, the elements are boxes with rectangular sides. The chapter uses the method of volumes of assign vertex and element characteristics. It covers techniques to adjust the mesh to match the boundaries of arbitrary electrodes and dielectrics. The chapter discusses the applications of special Neumann boundaries in finite-element solutions. In electrostatic solutions the normal derivative of potential equals zero along the boundary. The chapter introduces a technique to solve the large sets of linear equations. The method of successive over-relaxation is an iterative process. It involves continual small corrections of vertex potentials to bring them into conformance with the difference relationships. The method is fast and easy to program.
