Investigation of the mechanisms of the onset of instability in weakly conduction media in electric fields

Abstract

The initial stable state (of rest or laminar flow) of a weakly-conducting viscous multicomponent fluid in a plane channel, whose walls are electrodes with electrochemical properties varied in the process of investigation, are considered. The conventional electrohydrodynamic models of a medium with one or two charged particle components, whose concentrations are low compared with that of the neutral particles of the carrying fluid, are used. The time-dependent two-dimensional problem of the formation of the medium structure in the inter-electrode space after the voltage from the electrodes has been turned on is numerically solved. The obtained distributions of the Coulomb forces acting on the medium make it possible to develop several possible scenarios of the disturbance development, similar with those known in fluid dynamics. The realization of any of these scenarios considerably depends on the conditions at the electrode surfaces.