Lichtenberg Figure Simulator (2D)

Discharge Voltage

Voltage [220] kV

Branching

Branch probability [0.35]

Material

Resistance [0.50]

Discharge growing through the dielectric…

Live Readout

Branch count

Max branch length

Discharge energy

0 kJ

Active tips

How it works

A Lichtenberg figure forms when a strong electric field breaks down a normally insulating (dielectric) material: the voltage carves a conductive channel, and that channel intensifies the field at its own tip, so the next micro-breakdown happens right there instead of somewhere random — the discharge feeds on the very path it just cut.

This simulator follows that logic directly. Each growing tip advances along the local voltage field radiating out from the central electrode; the field weakens with distance and with the material's resistance, so every step drains a little of the tip's remaining energy. Raising voltage pushes tips further before they die out, while branch probability controls how often a tip forks into two weaker daughter channels instead of continuing alone — exactly the trade-off between one long streamer and many short ones seen in real high-voltage treeing.

When a tip's local field drops below the breakdown threshold, that branch stops permanently — the material there is not yet punctured. The result is the same fractal, current-starved tree captured in a real Lichtenberg figure: dense near the electrode, thinning and branching outward until every channel exhausts its share of the discharge energy.