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Static Electric Fields

This chapter discusses static electric fields and key concepts in electrostatics including: 1. Coulomb's law which describes the electrostatic force between point charges and defines the electric field of a point charge. 2. Gauss's law which relates the electric flux through a closed surface to the enclosed charge. 3. The fundamental postulates of electrostatics in free space and how Gauss's law can be used to derive Coulomb's law.

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159 views

Static Electric Fields

This chapter discusses static electric fields and key concepts in electrostatics including: 1. Coulomb's law which describes the electrostatic force between point charges and defines the electric field of a point charge. 2. Gauss's law which relates the electric flux through a closed surface to the enclosed charge. 3. The fundamental postulates of electrostatics in free space and how Gauss's law can be used to derive Coulomb's law.

Uploaded by

Malik umair
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 3:

Static Electric Fields

3-1. Overview
3-2. Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics in Free Space
3-3. Coulomb’s Law
3-4. Gauss’ Law and Applications
3.1 Overview
 Electrostatics is the study of the effect of electric
charges at rest, where the electric fields do not change
in time.

 Static electric fields in free space;


Conductors and dielectrics in static electric fields

 Deductive approach :
Divergence and curl of E  Gauss’s law 
Coulomb’s law
3.2 Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics
in Free Space
 Electric field intensity E is defined as the force per unit charge
that a very small stationary test charge experiences when it is
placed in a region where an electric field exists :

(3-1)

According to Eq. (3-1), the force F on a stationary charge q


in an electric field E:

(3-2)
3.2 Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics
in Free Space

 Two fundamental postulates of electrostatics in free space:

1. (3-3)

(v : the volume charge density [C/m3])

2. (3-4)
3.2 Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics
in Free Space
Taking the volume integral of both side of Eq. (3-3) over an
arbitrary volume V,

(3-5)

According to the Divergence theorem,

“Gauss’s law” (3-6)

where Q = the total charge contained in volume V bounded by surface S.


3.2 Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics
in Free Space
From Eq. (3-4), i.e., E = 0, integrating E over an open
surface and using Stokes’s theorem :

(3-7)

 The scalar line integral of the static electric field intensity


around any closed path vanishes
 The scalar product E  dl integrated over any path is the
voltage along that path :
“Kirchhoff’s voltage law” : The algebraic sum of voltage drops
around any closed circuit is zero.
3.2 Fundamental Postulates of Electrostatics
in Free Space

Postulates of Electrostatics in Free Space

Differential Form Integral Form

v Q
 E 
0  E  ds  
S
0

 E  0  E  dl  0
C
3-3 Coulomb’s Law
The electric field intensity E due to a single point charge q
at a spherical surface with radius R centered at the origin in free
space can be obtained by applying Gauss’s law, i.e., Eq.(3-6) :

 E  ds   a ER   a R ds 
q
0
R
S S

or

ER  ds  ER 4R 
S
 2
 q
0

(Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics, Addison-Wesley 1993, by David K. Cheng: p.77)


3-3 Coulomb’s Law

(3-8)

Eq. (3-8) tells that the electric field intensity of a positive


point charge is in the outward radial direction and has a
magnitude proportional to the charge and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance from the charge.
3-3 Coulomb’s Law

If the charge q is not at the origin of a coordinate system,

 
 q( R  R)
EP    3 (V / m)
40 R  R

(3-11)

Example 3-1

(Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics, Addison-Wesley 1993, by David K. Cheng: p.77)


3-3 Coulomb’s Law
When a point charge q2 is placed in the field of another point
charge q1, a force F12 is experienced by q2 due to electric
field intensity E12 of q1 at q2 :

(3-13)

“Coulomb’s law”

The force between two point charges is proportional to the


product of the charges and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance of separation.
3-3.1 Electric Field Due to a System of
Discrete Charges

The total E field at a point is the vector sum of the fields


caused by all the individual charges :

(3-14)
3-3.2 Electric Field due to a Continuous
Distribution of Charge

The contribution of the charge v dv in a differential volume


element dv to the electric field intensity at the field point P :

(3-15)

(Fundamentals of Engineering Electromagnetics, Addison-Wesley 1993, by David K. Cheng: p.82)


3-3.2 Electric Field due to a Continuous
Distribution of Charge

(3-16)

(v : the volume charge density [C/m3])

(3-17)

(s : the surface charge density [C/m2])

(3-18)

(s : the line charge density [C/m])


3-3.2 Electric Field due to a Continuous
Distribution of Charge

Example 3-3  As shown in the solution of example 3-3,


we can solve this problem using Eq.(3-18) in principle.
However, we’d better apply Gauss’s law as shown in
Examples 3-4, 3-5, and 3-6.
3-4 Gauss’s Law and Applications
Gauss’s law :
+ Divergence theorem

(3-24)

 The total outward flux of the E field over any closed


surface in free space is equal to the total charge enclosed in
the surface divided by

Examples 3-4, 3-5, and 3-6

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