UNIVERSITY OF BAHRAIN

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

EENG371: Electromagnetics 1

Experiment No. 3 Boundary Conditions For Conductor-

dielectric interface

Student Name(s) Student ID(s)

Abbas Saeed Abbas 202106428
Qasim Hassan Abdulla 20193844
Amjad Saleh 20195535

Lecturer: Mrs. Zahra Mahdi

Due Date: 11/5/2023
Date of Submission: 11/5/2023

By submitting this lab report for marking I confirm the following:

o This assignment is my own work
o Any information used has been properly referenced
o I understand that a copy of my work may be used for ABET documentations.

Do not write in this area (below the line), for instructor use only

Instructor: Date of Marking:

Comments:
Grade/Mark:

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 1 of 5
 EENG371
LABORATORY SHEET 3

Objective

1. To verify the boundary conditions for a dielectric conductor boundary.

2. To verify that the Electric field inside a conductor is zero.

Learning Outcome:

This lab assignment satisfies the Course Learning Outcome #2

Apparatus
1. The PASCO Scientific Field Mapper:
a. 1 sheet of conductive paper
b. A silver conductive pen
c. Corkboard working surface
d. Push pins for attaching conductive paper to
corkboard
2. Voltmeter
3. Power supply
4. Wires

Method

This lab has been designed to teach the students how to use the lab equipment to..............
This document is to be submitted to the tutor by hardcopy next lab period and also by email in the due
time announced.

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 2 of 5
Theory And Background
Refer to SadikuCh5

+ -

Figure 1: Draw two random shapes on the paper.

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 3 of 5
Procedure And Observations
A) Preparation of the experiment:
1. Place the conductive paper, printed side up, on a smooth surface. (NOT on the cork board). The
conductive paper will be assumed to a dielectric due to its law conductivity
2. Shake the conductive ink penfor 20 seconds.
3. Remove the cap and press the tip of the pen on a scrap paper while squeezing the pen barrel to start
the ink flowing.
4. Draw two random shapes on the conductive paper with a separation of 20 cm and fill them in. Figure
5. Allow the ink 20 minutes to dry before starting the experiment.
6. When dry, place the conductive paper on the corkboard.

Power
15v
Supply
+ve -ve

Conductive
Voltmeter
probe ground
paper

Random shape
conductors
Figure 2: The experimental set up for determining the Field lines.

B) Obtaining the field direction at the boundary between a conductor and a dielectric:
1. Set the power supply to 15V.
2. Using the wires and push pins, connect the positive supply to one of the shapes and the negative
supply to the other shape to obtain a dipole of opposite charge as shown in Figure 2
3. Tape the two leads of the voltmeter together as shown in Figure 3 such that there is a constant
distance between their connectors.
4. Start by placing the ground lead at a point on the positive conductor close to the boundary.
5. Keeping the ground lead stationary, pivot the probe lead around until you measure the highest
potential reading on the voltmeter. Record this reading
6. Draw an arrow from the ground lead to the probe lead.
7. Now place the ground lead of the voltmeter at another point on the positive conductor close to the
boundary and repeat step 6.

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 4 of 5
 8. Compare the voltmeter reading with the previous reading. Are they equal? Why?
9. Repeat steps 6-7 until you have arrows around the positive electrode.
10. Repeat steps 5-8 for the negative electrode
11. Now you will have field lines in the form of arrows drawn around each conductor.

Figure 3: Measuring the field lines by probing for the

highest potential with one lead fixed.

C) Field lines inside the conductor:

1. Place the voltmeter probe on the positive conductor with both leads on the conductor. Measure the
reading on the voltmeter.
2. Repeat for several different points on the conductor
3. Repeat step 1-2 for the negative conductor
.

Discussion and Conclusion:

Q1. What is the electric field inside a conductor?

The electric field inside a conductor (in isolated conditions) is zero.

Q2. What is the potential difference between two points in a conductor?

As a definition, potential difference is the difference in electric potential between two
points per unit electric charge. The voltage between two points is equal to the work
done per unit of charge against a static electric field to move the test charge between
two points.
In the case of the conductor which is isolated and ideal, the potential difference
between two points in a conductor is equal to zero.

Q3. What are the boundary condition at a conductor dielectric boundary?

For dielectric: 𝐸𝑑 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ = 𝐸𝑡 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ + 𝐸𝑛 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ = 0 + 𝐸𝑛 ⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗ = 𝜌𝑠 𝜀 𝛼⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑛 Et is the tangential
electric field component and En is the normal electric field component. For the
conductor under isolated and idea conditions, the electric field is zero.

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 5 of 5
 Q4. What is direction of the electric field at the boundary between a conductor and a dielectric?
The direction of the electric field would be normal (perpendicular) to the boundary, as the electric field as no
tangential component, rather a normal component only.

Q5. What does the arrow you draw in step B.6 represent.
The arrows represent the field lines directions.

Q6. What do you expect the direction of the arrow in Step B.6 is going to be with respect to the Conductor
dielectric interface. Explain
In this experiment, we are under the assumption of ideal conductor, so there is isn’ta charge inside
the conductor, rather the charges are distributed around the surface or boundary. This would
create an electric field normal to the boundary as mentioned previously, which we drew (or
estimated) in a finite sheet.

Q7. What do you expect the answer for Step B.8 is going to be. Explain.
The voltmeter current and previous reading were relatively close to each other, where the difference arose from the
randomness of the shape.

Q8. How do you expect to use the data in Section B to verify the Boundary conditions at a
Conductor dielectric interface?
The lines drawn were all normal to the boundary, which represents exactly the boundary conditions of
electric-dielectric interface.

Q9. What do you expect the reading in step C.1 to be? Explain
The electric field inside a conductor (under ideal conditions) is equal to zero. Knowing that voltage (potential
difference) is the partial derivative of the electric field, so we are supposed to obtain zero voltmeter reading.

Q10.How do you expect to use the data in Section C to verify the Electric Field inside a conductor is zero?
As previously mentioned, a zero-voltmeter reading indicates that the electric field inside a conductor is zero,
verify the objective of section C.

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 6 of 5
Conclusion:
In this experiment, we verified the boundary conditions for a dielectric conductor boundary, where we obtained the
maximum voltage reading at points normal to the surface of the conductor. Furthermore, we verified that the electric field
inside a conductor (ideal conditions), where we obtained zero voltmeter reading inside the conductor no matter what
points we chose. The objectives of the lab experiment were met by verifying the boundary conditions for dielectric-
conductor boundary and electric field inside a conductor is zero. Firstly, the apparatus was prepared and the procedure was
followed for the setup. Then observations and readings were recorded along theoretical discussions. The lab experiment
was conducted successfully under proper supervision. The lab experiment was found to be very useful in understanding the
theory.

Lab Work:

Electromagnetics1EENG371 Page 7 of 5