Dynamics of leaky dielectric drops in strong electric fields: Boundary element simulations

Abstract eng:
The deformation of leaky dielectric drops in a dielectric fluid medium when subject to a uniform electric field is a classic electrohydrodynamic phenomena best described by the well known Melcher-Taylor leaky dielectric model [1, 2]. In this work we develop a three-dimensional boundary element method for the full leaky dielectric model to systematically study the deformation and dynamics of drops in electric fields. The inclusion of charge convection in our simulations permits us to investigate dynamics in the so-called Quincke regime of strong electric fields, in which experiments have demonstrated symmetry breaking bifurcations leading to spontaneous rotation [8]. Most previous simulations have neglected charge convection or assumed axisymmetric drop shapes which prevents investigation of Quincke rotation in drops. Our numerical simulations show excellent agreement with experiments [9]. We also extend Taylor’s small deformation theory [1] to include the transient shape deformation, charge relaxation and convection terms in the leaky dielectric model.

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