Abstract: Many studies at macro level have proved that the surface states of conductors can affect the corona performance greatly, but their effects on the electric field pattern are not studied sufficiently at microscopic level. The influence of the different arrangement of metal particles on the plates applied voltage was simulated in the uniform electric field, because the uniform electric field allowed us to pay more attention to the law of mutual influence of the particles. When the metal particles were arranged in a line, as the number increased, the maximum electric field strength and the maximum surface charge density were weakened, which tended to a limit value. The formula was fitted according to the quantity-electric field strength curve. When three balls were arranged in a line, the weakening effect was the strongest when the middle ball was located in the middle of the other balls, and the shorter the distance between the two balls was, the more obvious the effect was. When the metal balls were arranged in regular polygons, the more the balls were and the closer their distance was, the more obvious the weakening effects. It was also found that the field strength reached the highest when the metal ball was close to but not in contact with the plate. The simulation results show that the less number of metal balls may not lead to a better electric field distribution, which provides a theoretical basis for better optimizing the surface state of conductors and removing the defects.

Key words: uniform electric field, metal ball, arrangement, electric field distribution, charge distribution