Modelling a conductive-capacitive medium using the boundary element method

TL;DR

This paper introduces a generalized fundamental solution for the boundary element method to model conductive-capacitive media, enabling accurate simulation of electromagnetic fields in complex industrial scenarios involving pipelines and power lines.

Contribution

A new fundamental solution incorporating phase and attenuation effects is derived and applied to model buried pipelines near high voltage power lines.

Findings

The generalized solution is validated through numerical simulations.

The model accurately captures capacitive and conductive effects in electromagnetic field problems.

Application to industrial scenarios demonstrates practical utility.

Abstract

In this paper a generalized fundamental solution using the boundary element method to solve the Helmholtz equation is proposed. It is observed that the commonly used fundamental solution is only valid for good conductors since the capacitive effect of the considered medium is always neglected. By the use of the well-known Lorentz gauge condition a fundamental solution which incorporates the phase as well as the attenuation transmission coefficients is derived by the authors. Next, a model is developed using this proposed fundamental solution for modelling a coating layer of a buried pipeline. Subsequently, a model of a buried coated pipeline in close proximity to a high voltage power line is developed and numerically implemented. Finally, the model is used to simulate two configurations in order the verify the proposed general fundamental solution of the boundary element method for electromagnetic field problems. Hereby, its validity is proven and it is shown that the generalized solution and related model can be used for industrial applications.