CHARGE

The program EMA3D® CHARGE is a software with multiple solvers. The EMA3D tool is a three-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) solver and it is used in conjunction with non-linear air chemistry to tackle air breakdown problems. More details about the FDTD of EMA3D is provided in the EMA3D section of this manual. In this section, we describe the non-linear air chemistry physics, as well as the physics of surface and internal charging.

The program EMA3D® CHARGE also has a different solver for surface charge balance, a full-wave finite element method (FEM) solution of electromagnetic waves, and a 3D particle transport tool. These last three tools may be coupled and solved self-consistently, depending on the needs of the of the problem. As part of the initialization process, the models have to be meshed and materials properties have to be set. Each workflow requires a specific mesh or specific set of material properties.

The Ansys data sheet is available at the this link.

In the GUI, when the user has finalized the initialization of the simulation and presses the Start button, a directory with a set of simulation files is generated. These files are the input files to the solvers. Hence, the user can call the executable of the solvers independently from the GUI by opening a terminal window or a command prompt and typing "ema3d.exe" (for air breakdown) or "ema3d_charge.exe" (for surface, internal, and particle transport).

We introduce these capabilities in the following sections: