Learning Forum

[naegelii]

I have a cylindrical shape composed of copper squares. I'd like to excite one of them to a certain voltage, set all the other electrodes equal to zero, and then measure the capacitence between one copper plate and all the others. When I measure, I receive negative capacitence values, but only a positive capacitence value when measuring between a plate and itself. The simulation setup is electrostatic, I have a matrix that is composed of the voltages of each plate, and I am running a capacitence scan with 20 passes and 0.5% error based on that matrix. Could anyone explain why I am getting negative capacitence values? 

[MirandaH]

From the capacitance matrix, the off-diagonal items (i.e. mutual capacitances) are negative while the diagonal items (i.e. self-capacitances) are positive. This may result from the capacitance matrix calculation.