IEEE Spectrum Tech Insider Webinar

Fully Coupled Internal Space Charging Simulations with EMA3D-Internal

EMA3D®-Internal is a fully 3D internal space charging software tool. It allows for a comprehensive internal space charging analysis to be performed almost entirely within a graphical user interface, including: sophisticated geometry import, development and meshing capabilities, simulation and post-processing. The user can specify realistic, time dependent, radiation environments, such as what might be obtained using the AP9/AE9 framework.
Recently, EMA3D-Internal has been improved to provide a fully-coupled simulation platform, such that the incident radiation environment is affected by the developing background electric fields within and around dielectric materials. These background electric fields often act to reduce internal charging, as incident electrons tend to be repelled by the developing fields. Quantifying the effects of the background electric fields is important for accurately assessing risk and making optimal design choices related to internal charging. In this webinar, we give a comprehensive demonstration of EMA3D-Internal, including geometry development, environment specification, fully-coupled simulation, and post-processing for design applications.

Bryon Neufeld, PhD Senior Scientist/Program Manager

Bryon earned a PhD in theoretical nuclear and plasma physics from Duke University in 2009. While at Duke he published multiple articles in the Physical Review on dense plasma systems, and received a Viewpoint recognizing him for excellent research by the American Physical Society. After graduating from Duke, Bryon worked in the Theory Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was awarded a Director’s Funded Postdoctoral Fellowship. At Los Alamos, he continued to work and publish across a wide array of projects related to hot plasmas and electromagnetic systems. In addition to his technical degrees, Bryon has an MBA from Cornell University, where he graduated in the top 10% of his class.

Bryon joined EMA in 2013. At EMA, Bryon has performed numerical simulation and model development for a number of electromagnetic effects projects, including lightning indirect effects, lightning direct effects, HIRF, and space charging. He developed and executed simulation strategies to help determine the space charging risks for NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle’s FT-1 and EM-1 missions. He has also developed computational tools to bridge near-field, table-top measurement data into a format compatible with EMA3D®’s numerical simulation, which can in turn be used to extract the far-field EM emission pattern. He has developed software tools to expand EMA3D’s abilities in the thermal effects of lightning and geometry export for space charging applications, and is the primary developer of EMA3D-Internal, EMA’s fully 3D internal space charging software tool.

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