Numerical Procedures for Solving the Laplace Equation

The modeling of the current distribution in a general-geometry cell nearly always requires a numerical solution. The following discussion focuses on the thin boundary layer approximation, with the overpotential components lumped within a thin boundary layer which may be of a varying thickness. The Laplace equation for the potential with nonlinear boundary conditions must be solved. Similar considerations typically apply to the more comprehensive solution of the Nernst-Planck equation (10) however, the need to account for the convective fluid flow in the latter case makes the application of the boundary methods more complex. We focus our brief discussion on the most common methods the finite-difference method, the finite-element method, and the boundary-element method, schematically depicted in Fig. 4. Since the finite-difference method is the simplest to implement and the best known technique, it is discussed in somewhat more detail. 

Boundary elements methods Orthogonal collocations Conformai mapping 

A significantly more comprehensive discussion of the numerical algorithms has been provided recently by Schlesinger.  

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