Transient Electrohydrodynamic Manipulation of Particles on the Surface of a Drop

Author(s):  
Edison C. Amah ◽  
Ian S. Fischer ◽  
Pushpendra Singh

In our previous studies we have shown that particles adsorbed on the surface of a drop can be concentrated at its poles or equator by applying a uniform electric field. This happens even when the applied electric field is uniform; the electric field on the surface of the drop is nonuniform, and so particles adsorbed on the surface are subjected to dielectrophoretic (DEP) forces. In this study, we use leaky dielectric model to model the transient behavior of particles at low electric field frequencies. We show that the frequency of the electric field is an important control parameter that under certain conditions can be used to collect particles at the poles or the equator, and to move them from the poles to the equator. The speed with which particles move on the surface depends on the strength of the electrohydrodynamic flow which diminishes with increasing frequency.

1998 ◽  
Vol 368 ◽  
pp. 359-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. BAYGENTS ◽  
N. J. RIVETTE ◽  
H. A. STONE

The motion of two drops in a uniform electric field is considered using the leaky dielectric model. The drops are assumed to have no native charge and a dielectrophoretic effect favours translation of the drops toward one another. However, circulatory flows that stem from electrohydrodynamic stresses may either act with or against this dielectrophoretic effect. Consequently, both prolate and oblate drop deformations may be generated and significant deformation occurs near drop contact owing to enhancement of the local electric field. For sufficiently widely spaced drops, electrohydrodynamic flows dominate direct electrical interactions so drops may be pushed apart, though closely spaced drops almost always move together as a result of the electrical interaction or deformation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 829 ◽  
pp. 127-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debasish Das ◽  
David Saintillan

Weakly conducting dielectric liquid drops suspended in another dielectric liquid and subject to an applied uniform electric field exhibit a wide range of dynamical behaviours contingent on field strength and material properties. These phenomena are best described by the Melcher–Taylor leaky dielectric model, which hypothesizes charge accumulation on the drop–fluid interface and prescribes a balance between charge relaxation, the jump in ohmic currents from the bulk and charge convection by the interfacial fluid flow. Most previous numerical simulations based on this model have either neglected interfacial charge convection or restricted themselves to axisymmetric drops. In this work, we develop a three-dimensional boundary element method for the complete leaky dielectric model to systematically study the deformation and dynamics of liquid drops in electric fields. The inclusion of charge convection in our simulations permits us to investigate drops in the Quincke regime, in which experiments have demonstrated a symmetry-breaking bifurcation leading to steady electrorotation. Our simulation results show excellent agreement with existing experimental data and small-deformation theories.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (07) ◽  
pp. 729-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHI-TAO LI ◽  
GAO-JIN LI ◽  
HAI-BO HUANG ◽  
XI-YUN LU

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has been applied to electrohydrodynamics (EHD) in recent years. In this paper, Shan–Chen (SC) single-component multiphase LBM is developed to study large-density-ratio EHD problems. The deformation/motion of a droplet suspended in a viscous liquid under an applied external electric field is studied with three different electric field models. The three models are leaky dielectric model, perfect dielectric model and constant surface charge model. They are used to investigate the effects of the electric field, electric properties of liquids and electric charges. The leaky dielectric model and the perfect dielectric model are validated by the comparison of LBM results with theoretical analysis and available numerical data. It shows that the SC LBM coupled with these electric field models is able to predict the droplet deformation under an external electric field. When net charges are present on the droplet surface and an electric field is applied, both droplet deformation and motion are reasonably predicted. The current numerical method may be an effective approach to analyze more complex EHD problems.


2019 ◽  
Vol 881 ◽  
pp. 524-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antarip Poddar ◽  
Shubhadeep Mandal ◽  
Aditya Bandopadhyay ◽  
Suman Chakraborty

We investigate the effects of surfactant coating on a deformable viscous drop under the combined action of shear flow and a uniform electric field. Employing a comprehensive three-dimensional approach, we analyse the non-Newtonian shearing response of the bulk emulsion in the dilute suspension regime. Our results reveal that the location of the peak surfactant accumulation on the drop surface may get shifted from the plane of shear to a plane orthogonal to it, depending on the tilt angle of the applied electric field and strength of the electrical stresses relative to their hydrodynamic counterparts. The surfactant non-uniformity creates significant alterations in the flow perturbation around the drop, triggering modulations in the bulk shear viscosity. Overall, the shear-thinning or shear-thickening behaviour of the emulsion appears to be greatly influenced by the interplay of surface charge convection and Marangoni stresses. We show that the balance between electrical and hydrodynamic stresses renders a vanishing surface tension gradient on the drop surface for some specific shear rates, rendering negligible alterations in the bulk viscosity. This critical condition largely depends on the electrical permittivity and conductivity ratios of the two fluids and orientation of the applied electric field. Also, the physical mechanisms of charge convection and surface deformation play their roles in determining this critical shear rate. As a consequence, we obtain new discriminating factors, involving electrical property ratios and the electric field configuration, which govern the same. Consequently, the surfactant-induced enhancement or attenuation of the bulk emulsion viscosity depends on the electrical conductivity and permittivity ratios. The concerned description of the drop-level flow physics and its connection to the bulk rheology of a dilute emulsion may provide a fundamental understanding of a more complex emulsion system encountered in industrial practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 844 ◽  
pp. 567-596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunqiao Liu ◽  
Dongdong He ◽  
Xiaobo Gong ◽  
Huaxiong Huang

In this paper, we investigate the dynamics of an encapsulated bubble in steady and oscillatory electric fields theoretically, based on a leaky dielectric model. On the bubble surface, an applied electric field generates a Maxwell stress, in addition to hydrodynamic traction and membrane mechanical stress. Our model also includes the effect of interfacial charge due to the jump of the current and the stretching of the interface. We focus on the axisymmetric deformation of the encapsulated bubble induced by the electric field and carry out our analysis using Legendre polynomials. In our first example, the encapsulating membrane is modelled as a nearly incompressible interface with bending rigidity. Under a steady uniform electric field, the encapsulated bubble resumes an elongated equilibrium shape, dominated by the second- and fourth-order shape modes. The deformed shape agrees well with experimental observations reported in the literature. Our model reveals that the interfacial charge distribution is determined by the magnitude of the shape modes, as well as the permittivity and conductivity of the external and internal fluids. The effects of the electric field on the natural frequency of the oscillating bubble are also shown. For our second example, we considered a bubble encapsulated with a hyperelastic membrane with bending rigidity, subject to an oscillatory electric field. We show that the bubble can modulate its oscillating frequency and reach a stable shape oscillation at an appreciable amplitude.


Author(s):  
Michael Zabarankin

A small deformation theory for two non-identical spherical drops freely suspended in an ambient fluid and subjected to a uniform electric field is presented. The three phases are assumed to be leaky dielectric (slightly conducting) viscous incompressible fluids and the nonlinear effects of inertia and surface charge convection are neglected. The deformed shapes of the drops are linearized with respect to the electric capillary number that characterizes the balance between the electric stress and the surface tension. When the two drops are sufficiently far apart, their deformed shapes are predicted by Taylor’s small deformation theory—depending on Taylor’s discriminating function, the drops may become prolate, oblate or remain spherical. When the two drops get closer to each other, in addition to becoming prolate/oblate, they start translating and developing an egg shape. (Since there is no net charge, the centre of mass of the two drops remains stationary.) The extent of each of these ‘modes’ of deformation depends on the distance between the drops’ centres and on drop-to-ambient fluid ratios of electric conductivities, dielectric constants and viscosities. The predictions of the small deformation theory for two drops perfectly agree with the existing results of two-drop dynamics simulation based on a boundary-integral equation approach. Moreover, while previous works observed only three types of behaviour for two identical drops—the drops may either become prolate or oblate and move towards each other or become prolate and move away from each other—the small deformation theory predicts that non-identical drops may, in fact, become oblate and move away from each other when the drop-to-ambient fluid conductivity ratios are reciprocal and the drop-to-ambient fluid viscosity ratios are sufficiently large. The presented theory also readily yields an analytical insight into the interplay among different modes of drop deformation and can be used to guide the selection of the phases’ electromechanical properties for two-drop dynamics simulations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 2826-2834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Uren ◽  
Serge Karboyan ◽  
Indranil Chatterjee ◽  
Alexander Pooth ◽  
Peter Moens ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 862 ◽  
pp. 696-731 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Ward ◽  
Satoshi Matsumoto ◽  
Ranga Narayanan

The onset of interfacial instability in two-fluid systems using a viscous, leaky dielectric model is studied. The instability arises as a result of resonance between the parametric frequency of an imposed electric field and the system’s natural frequency. In addition to a rigorous model that uses Floquet instability analysis, where both viscous and charge effects are considered, this study also provides convincing validating experiments. In other results, it is shown that (a) the imposition of a periodic electrostatic potential acts to counter gravity and this countering effect becomes more effective if a DC voltage is also added, (b) a critical DC voltage exists at which the interface becomes unstable such that no parametric frequency is required to completely destabilize the interface and (c) the leaky dielectric model approaches a model for a perfect dielectric/perfect conductor pair as the conductivity ratio becomes large. It is also shown via experiments that parametric resonant instability using electrostatic forcing may be reliably used to estimate interfacial tension to sufficient accuracy.


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