Resonant vibration of a droplet located on a superhydrophobic surface under the vertical and horizontal ac field

Abstract

A water droplet under an ac electric field with resonant frequency changes drastically its shape repeating extension and shrinkage, alternatively. To develop an electrostatic mixing method of small amount of liquid, resonant vibrating motion of a water droplet was investigated. Both horizontal and vertical fields were applied to the droplet placed on a super-hydrophobic plate with a contact angle of 150 degrees. From the video images of the droplet, the degree of deformation of the droplet shape was evaluated by deformation rate. Under the two-directional electric field, the deformation ratio at shrinkage was increased significantly. The height of the droplet varies from 1.2 to 1.8 times larger than that of the original droplet during vibrating motion. Furthermore, the deformation rate at shrinkage varies with time periodically due to rotating motion of the droplet. The vertical electric field might be effective to cause the turbulent flow inside of the droplet.