CREEPING MOTION OF A BUBBLE WITH FIXED SURFACE CHARGE IN A UNIFORM ELECTRIC FIELD

We investigate the motion of a sedimenting drop in the presence of an electric field in an arbitrary direction, otherwise uniform, in the limit of small interface deformation and low-surface-charge convection. We analytically solve the electric potential in and around the leaky dielectric drop, and solve for the Stokesian velocity and pressure fields. We obtain the correction in drop velocity due to shape deformation and surface-charge convection considering small capillary number and small electric Reynolds number which signifies the importance of charge convection at the drop surface. We show that tilt angle, which quantifies the angle of inclination of the applied electric field with respect to the direction of gravity, has a significant effect on the magnitude and direction of the drop velocity. When the electric field is tilted with respect to the direction of gravity, we obtain a non-intuitive lateral motion of the drop in addition to the buoyancy-driven sedimentation. Both the charge convection and shape deformation yield this lateral migration of the drop. Our analysis indicates that depending on the magnitude of the tilt angle, conductivity and permittivity ratios, the direction of the sedimenting drop can be controlled effectively. Our experimental investigation further confirms the presence of lateral migration of the drop in the presence of a tilted electric field, which is in support of the essential findings from the analytical formalism.

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The effect of surface-charge convection on the settling velocity of spherical drops in a uniform electric field

Journal of Fluid Mechanics ◽

10.1017/jfm.2016.286 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 797 ◽

pp. 536-548 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Ehud Yariv ◽

Yaniv Almog

Keyword(s):

Difference Equation ◽

Electric Field ◽

Surface Charge ◽

Settling Velocity ◽

Numerical Solutions ◽

Weak Field ◽

Uniform Electric Field ◽

Electrostatic Problem ◽

Settling Speed ◽

The Difference

The mechanism of surface-charge convection, quantified by the electric Reynolds number $Re$, renders the Melcher–Taylor electrohydrodynamic model inherently nonlinear, with the electrostatic problem coupled to the flow. Because of this nonlinear coupling, the settling speed of a drop under a uniform electric field differs from that in its absence. This difference was calculated by Xu & Homsy (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 564, 2006, pp. 395–414) assuming small $Re$. We here address the same problem using a different route, considering the case where the applied electric field is weak in the sense that the magnitude of the associated electrohydrodynamic velocity is small compared with the settling velocity. As convection is determined at leading order by the well-known flow associated with pure settling, the electrostatic problem becomes linear for arbitrary value of $Re$. The electrohydrodynamic correction to the settling speed is then provided as a linear functional of the electric-stress distribution associated with that problem. Calculation of the settling speed eventually amounts to the solution of a difference equation governing the respective coefficients in a spherical harmonics expansion of the electric potential. It is shown that, despite the present weak-field assumption, our model reproduces the small-$Re$ approximation of Xu and Homsy as a particular case. For finite $Re$, inspection of the difference equation reveals a singularity at the critical $Re$-value $4S(1+R)(1+M)/(1+S)M$, wherein $R$, $S$ and $M$ respectively denote the ratios of resistivity, permittivity and viscosity values in the suspending and drop phases, as defined by Melcher & Taylor (Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., vol. 1, 1969, pp. 111–146). Straightforward numerical solutions of this equation for electric Reynolds numbers smaller than the critical value reveal a non-monotonic dependence of the settling speed upon the electric field magnitude, including a transition from velocity enhancement to velocity decrement.

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