Nonlinear oscillations and stability of a charged drop moving relative to a dielectric medium

Abstract

Nonlinear calculations to within the second order of smallness with respect to the initial deformation of a liquid drop show that a stream of an ideal incompressible dielectric liquid streamlining the charged ideally conducting drop causes interaction between modes both in the first and second orders of smallness. Both the linear and nonlinear interactions of the oscillation modes result in the excitation of modes absent in the spectrum of the initial drop deformation. The relative motion of the drop and the medium leads to broadening of the spectrum of modes excited in the second order of smallness. The presence of the flow streamlining the drop and the intermode interaction result in decreasing the critical magnitudes of the drop charge and the velocity and density of the medium determining drop instability development.