Electrohydrodynamic flow caused by field-enhanced dissociation solely

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flows emerge in dielectric liquids under the action of the Coulomb force and underlie energy-efficient techniques for heat and mass transfer. The key issue in the phenomena is the way how the net charge is created. One of the most promising, yet poorly studied charge formation mechanisms is the field-enhanced dissociation (or the Wien effect). So the paper studies an EHD flow caused solely by the effect by virtue of both experiment and computer simulation. To preclude the competing mechanism of charge formation—the injection—a new EHD system of a special design was examined. Its main feature is the use of solid insulation to create the region of the strong electric field far from the electrode metal surfaces. The experimental study used the particle image velocimetry technique to observe velocity distributions, whereas the computations were based on the complete set of electrohydrodynamic equations employing the commercial software package COMSOL Multiphysics. Spatial distributions of key quantities (including the ion concentrations, the total space charge density, and the velocity) and the acting forces were obtained in the computer simulation and were analyzed. The experimental flow structure was observed for a number of voltages up to 30 kV. The comparison of the numerical and experimental results yielded a good quantitative agreement for strong electric fields though some overshoot was observed for weak ones. The results allow concluding on the applicability of the Onsager theory of the field-enhanced dissociation in the context of EHD flows.