Effective dielectric properties of binary dielectric mixtures on checkerboards

Effective dielectric properties of checkerboard structures composed of two media are calculated using the finite element method. Random arrangements of media are considered on 16 × 16, 32 × 32 and 64 × 64 checkerboards with different concentration ratios of the medium. Using three different board sizes allow us to study finite-size scaling effects. Electrical field distributions estimated from the finite element method are used to predict the amount of electrically stressed regions. It is concluded that for the considered systems these structures can plausibly be described with the symmetric Bruggeman effective medium expression.