Effect of plate roughness on the field near RPC plates

TL;DR

This paper models the complex surface roughness of RPC electrodes and analyzes its impact on the electric field within the detector using numerical methods, highlighting how asperities influence detector response.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed modeling approach for electrode surface roughness and compares FEM and BEM methods to evaluate their effects on electrostatic fields in RPCs.

Findings

Roughness affects the uniformity of the electric field in RPCs.

FEM and BEM methods provide comparable results for surface roughness effects.

Surface asperities can influence detector performance and response.

Abstract

The inner surfaces of the electrodes encompassing the gas volume of a Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) have been found to exhibit asperities with, grossly, three kinds of features. The desired uniform electric field within the gas volume of RPC is expected to be affected due to the presence of these asperities, which will eventually affect the final response from the detector. In this work, an attempt has been made to model the highly complex roughness of the electrode surfaces and compute its effect on the electrostatic field within RPC gas chamber. The calculations have been performed numerically using Finite Element Method (FEM) and Boundary Element Method (BEM) and the two methods have been compared in this context.