Troubleshooting Electrostatic Simulations

Simulation Crashes at Initialization in Parallel

This is most commonly due to under or over specified boundary conditions on the simulation. It is common for the simulation to be able to run in serial but not parallel in this condition. Visual Setup simulations will take care of specification except in the event a partial boundary condition on one simulation face intersects a partial boundary condition of a separate face. In that event it is critical to make sure that the lower bound of the selected boundary surface is filled as well as up to one cell above the upper bound of the boundary surface, and that neither of these intersectins are set twice.

Simulation Crashes at Startup with PEC Dirichlet Boundaries

PEC objects in the simulation must be entirely inside of the simulation grid in order to ensure proper problem setup.

The Electrostatic Solver Does Not Converge

If the electrostatic solver does not converge, this often indicates a problem with the setup. The matrix can be singular in a fully periodic system due to the failure to specify the value of the potential at one point.