Free space capacitance of conducting surfaces

Abstract

Capacitance computation is an important step in the development of a spacecraft equivalent circuit model for predicting the surface charge build up. Since different parts of the spacecraft may be represented in terms of standard geometrical shapes, this paper presents a numerical procedure developed for computing the capacitance of such standard objects located in free space. The objects considered are conducting and hence the analysis assumes an equipotential surface having an unknown charge distribution. The charge distribution and the total charge are evaluated using the moment method by triangular patch modelling of the surface. The capacitance in free space of planar, cubic and wedge shaped conducting geometries have been numerically computed using the above technique. The results obtained for some of these geometries have been compared with the results available in the literature.