Dielectric‐coated conducting curvilinear surface electrostatic model for spacecraft charging applications

In this article, free space capacitance of dielectric‐coated conducting curvilinear surfaces is obtained using method of moments (MOM). The surfaces are discretized using triangular subsections. The curvilinear surfaces are represented by quadratic parametric elements. The MOM based on the pulse basis function and point matching is used. The integrand is divided into a regular and a singular part. The regular part of the integral is numerically evaluated by using the Gaussian quadrature algorithm for triangles. The Duffy transformation is used to evaluate the singular part of the integrals. Computed results are given for the capacitance of the dielectric‐coated conducting cylinder of finite axial length and truncated cone, and compared with the previously published results. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.