Leaky Dielectric Fluids Research Articles

Small voltage electrocapillary flows in the presence of ionic surfactants

Rapid flows were observed by applying a small voltage across an organic-aqueous interface in the presence of an ionic surfactant. These flows are in contrast to the experiments of G. I. Taylor and J. R. Melcher [Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1, 111 (1969); D. A. Saville, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 29, 27 (1997)], where no ionic surfactant was used. In their experiments, a large voltage difference was necessary to induce a surface charge between two leaky dielectric fluids. Here, we intentionally create a surface charge by adding a cationic surfactant. The result is that a much lower voltage is necessary to cause substantial flows. Two experiments are performed to compare these results with classical thermocapillary flow experiments.

Electrohydrodynamic behaviour of a drop subjected to a steady uniform electric field at finite electric Reynolds number

The electrohydrodynamic flow associated with a fluid drop in an electric field is a consequence of the tangential electric stress at the fluid interface. The tangential viscous stress due to the electrohydrodynamic flow arises to just balance the tangential electric stress at the fluid interface so that the traction boundary condition is satisfied. Influenced by both the local electric stress and viscous stress, the drop interface may exhibit various shapes. The presence of fluid flow also leads to charge convection phenomena. The relative significance of the charge convection effect is usually measured in terms of the electric Reynolds number, Re E , defined as the ratio of the timescales of charge convection by flow and that for charge relaxation by ohmic conduction. This work presents a quantitative analysis of the charge convection effects in a framework of the leaky dielectric model at finite Re E , which has not been considered in previous investigations. Axisymmetric steady flows driven by an applied uniform electric field about a deformable fluid drop suspended in an immiscible fluid are studied by computational means of the Galerkin finite–element method with supplementary asymptotic analysis. The results of finite–element computations are in general agreement with the prediction by the asymptotic analysis for spherical drops at vanishingly small Re E . A common effect of charge convection is found to reduce the intensity of electrohydrodynamic flow. As a consequence, oblate drops are predicted to be less deformed in an electric field when charge convection is taken into account. The prolate drops are often associated with an equator–to–pole flow, which convects charges toward the poles to form a charge distribution resembling that in a highly conducting drop immersed in an insulating medium. Therefore, charge convection tends to enhance the prolate drop deformation. In many cases, charge convection effects are found to be significant even at apparently small Re E , corresponding to the charge relaxation time–scale about 10 −3 s, suggesting that many experimental results reported in the previous publications could have been influenced by charge convection effects.

Fluid dynamics of a double emulsion droplet in an electric field

One of general free boundary problems concerning the electrohydrodynamic effects on a concentric double emulsion drop is studied theoretically for the three constituent phases of leaky dielectric fluids. In order to proceed the problem analytically, the domain perturbation procedure is utilized in the small deformation limit. The patterns of electric-field-driven flow are successfully characterized by examining the distribution of induced surface charges at the inner and outer drop interfaces. The second recirculating flow is generated in the annular phase when the inner and outer interfaces are charged with the same sense. The deformation type of inner and outer interfaces can be roughly interpreted by the flow patterns, although the exact description on the deformation requires consideration of the combined contributions from both electric and flow fields. In addition, the presence of double emulsion droplets alters the stress field of the continuous phase. The electric-field-induced “particle stress” not only changes the effective viscosity of dispersion of the double emulsion droplets but yields the normal stress difference, which is typical of a viscoelastic fluid. Finally, the heat transfer rate enhanced by the electric-field-driven flow is also considered.