If I have a grounded conducting material, then I know that $\phi=0$ inside this material, no matter what the electric configuration in the surrounding will be.
Now I have a conducting material that is not grounded, then there will be (as long as I am dealing with static problems) no electric field inside this material. Therefore the potential will be constant inside this material, right?
Question 1:Therefore, is there any difference in the boundary conditions if I am dealing with a grounded conducting material and an insulator around or a non-charged insulated conducting material and an insulator around?
Question 2:Is it possible to get a non-zero potential inside an uncharged insulated conducting material? Especially, would you get a non-zero potential inside a conducting insulated material due to image charges?
Question 3:Of course, I read a few pages in Jackson's book about this and saw that he substituted the problem of a charged insulated conducting sphere in an external field with the one of having a grounded conducting sphere in the external field that has a charge sitting in the center of the sphere. Then, the magnitude of the extra charge was given by the difference of the initial charge of the sphere minus the induced image charge on the grounded conducting sphere.
Is it possible to make a general substitution like this: Thereby I mean, that we substitute a charged insulated conducting material carrying a charge by a grounded conducting material that has an additional charge(magnitude given by the difference of total charge-image charge) sitting on its surface? So, I would solve the grounded problem and would add the difference of the total charge-image charge to the surface of the material and add this field to the field calculated for the problem of the grounded material.
Now I have a conducting material that is not grounded, then there will be (as long as I am dealing with static problems) no electric field inside this material. Therefore the potential will be constant inside this material, right?
Question 1:Therefore, is there any difference in the boundary conditions if I am dealing with a grounded conducting material and an insulator around or a non-charged insulated conducting material and an insulator around?
Question 2:Is it possible to get a non-zero potential inside an uncharged insulated conducting material? Especially, would you get a non-zero potential inside a conducting insulated material due to image charges?
Question 3:Of course, I read a few pages in Jackson's book about this and saw that he substituted the problem of a charged insulated conducting sphere in an external field with the one of having a grounded conducting sphere in the external field that has a charge sitting in the center of the sphere. Then, the magnitude of the extra charge was given by the difference of the initial charge of the sphere minus the induced image charge on the grounded conducting sphere.
Is it possible to make a general substitution like this: Thereby I mean, that we substitute a charged insulated conducting material carrying a charge by a grounded conducting material that has an additional charge(magnitude given by the difference of total charge-image charge) sitting on its surface? So, I would solve the grounded problem and would add the difference of the total charge-image charge to the surface of the material and add this field to the field calculated for the problem of the grounded material.