Stability of a bubble in a dielectric liquid in an external electrostatic field

Abstract

Critical instability conditions are found for a gas bubble in a liquid dielectric in a uniform external electrostatic field E0. It is shown that they depend both on the magnitude of E0 and on the properties of the liquid, as well as on the gas pressure in the bubble. In a linear approximation with respect to the square of the eccentricity of an equilibrium spheroidal form, the equilibrium eccentricity of the bubble exceeds the equilibrium eccentricity of a drop in the field E0. The gas pressure in the bubble lowers the critical electric field E0 for development of an instability in the bubble.