Equilibrium configurations of the conducting liquid surface in a nonuniform electric field

Possible equilibrium configurations of the free surface of a conducting liquid deformed by a nonuniform external electric field are investigated. The liquid rests on an electrode that has the shape of a dihedral angle formed by two intersecting equipotential half-planes (conducting wedge). It is assumed that the problem has plane symmetry: the surface is invariant under shift along the edge of the dihedral angle. A one-parametric family of exact solutions for the shape of the surface is found in which the opening angle of the region above the wedge serves as a parameter. The solutions are valid when the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the liquid is zero. For an arbitrary pressure difference, approximate solutions to the problem are constructed and it is demonstrated the approximation error is small. It is found that, when the potential difference exceeds a certain threshold value, equilibrium solutions are absent. In this case, the region occupied by the liquid disintegrates, the disintegration scenario depending on the opening angle.     

Exact solutions for the shape of a 2D conducting drop moving through a dielectric medium at an angle to the external electric field

Possible equilibrium configurations of the surface of a drop of a conducting liquid, moving relative to a dielectric medium at a certain angle to the external electric field, are considered in the 2D formulation. A two-parametric family of exact particular solutions to this problem is obtained using the conformal mapping method. These solutions are characterized by a considerable strain of the 2D drop surface (the highest possible ratio of its longitudinal and transverse sizes is 11/2).     

Exact solution of the problem of the equilibrium configuration of the charged surface of a liquid metal

A broad class of exact solutions is obtained for the problem of the equilibrium configuration of the charged surface of a conducting liquid allowing for capillary forces. An analysis of the solutions showed that when the amplitudes of the perturbations reached certain critical values, the region occupied by the liquid ceases to be singly connected, which corresponds to the formation of liquid metal droplets. It is shown that a steady-state liquid metal profile may exist for which appreciable local amplification of the electric field can be achieved. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 116, 1990–2005 (December 1999)     

Flow pattern due to capillary-gravitational waves in a charged layer of a viscous conducting liquid on a solid support

Analytical solutions for the time evolution of a capillary-gravitational wave in a charged layer of a viscous conducting liquid on a solid support are found. It is shown that the velocity field eddy component of the wave-induced liquid flow arises not only near the free surface of the liquid, but also at the solid bottom. The ratio between the amplitudes of these eddy components depends on the relationship between the thickness of the layer and the wavelength. If the wavelength far exceeds the thickness, the eddy flow amplitude near the bottom exceeds that near the free surface and the eddy flow occupies the whole volume of the liquid.     

Equilibrium configurations of uncharged conducting liquid jets in a transverse electric field

Solutions for the problem on the equilibrium configurations of uncharged conducting liquid jets in a transverse electric field are obtained. These solutions correspond to finite-amplitude non-axisymmetric azimuthal deformations of the surface of a round jet: the jet is stretched along the field in its cross-section. The range of electric fields is determined for which solutions of the problem exist. If the electric field strength is over some critical value, the electrostatic equations have no solution, and the jet splits. The obtained solutions are qualitatively examined for stability under small azimuthal perturbations.     

Equilibrium configurations of a jet of an ideally conducting liquid in an external nonuniform magnetic field

Possible equilibrium configurations of the free surface of a jet of an ideally conducting liquid placed in a nonuniform magnetic field are considered. The magnetic field is generated by two thin wires that are parallel to the jet and bear oppositely directed currents. Equilibrium is due to a balance between capillary and magnetic forces. For the plane symmetric case, when the jet deforms only in the plane of its cross section, two one-parameter families of exact solutions to the problem are derived using the method of conformal mapping. According to these solutions, a jet with an initially circular cross section deforms up to splitting into two separate jets. A criterion for jet splitting is derived by analyzing approximate two-parameter solutions.     

Electrocapillary instability of a conducting liquid cylinder

The electrocapillary instability of a conducting liquid cylinder is analyzed. Exact solutions to the linearized Navier-Stokes equations are examined. Growth rates are found for several unstable modes, including both axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric ones. Special attention is given to the electric field effects on the temporal growth and length scales of unstable modes. It is shown that, whereas capillary instability is axisymmetric in the absence of electric field, nonaxisymmetric surface modes also become unstable in a nonzero electric field, growing with time. With increasing electric field strength, azimuthal modes are “switched on” (begin to grow with time) sequentially and the highest temporal growth rate monotonically increases.     

Formation of singularities on the surface of a liquid metal in a strong electric field

The nonlinear dynamics of the free surface of an ideal conducting liquid in a strong external electric field is studied. It is established that the equations of motion for such a liquid can be solved in the approximation in which the surface deviates from a plane by small angles. This makes it possible to show that on an initially smooth surface for almost any initial conditions points with an infinite curvature corresponding to branch points of the root type can form in a finite time. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 2043–2054 (December 1998)     

Nonlinear resonance interaction between the oscillation modes of a spherical liquid layer on the surface of a melting hailstone

Evolutionary equations are derived and solved that describe the time dependence of the oscillation mode amplitudes on the surface of a charged conducting liquid layer resting on a solid core. It is assumed that the layer experiences a multimode initial deformation. The equations are solved asymptotically in the second order of smallness in the small dimensionless amplitude of capillary oscillations on the surface of the layer. Mechanisms behind internal nonlinear resonance interaction between the modes of the liquid layer oscillations and behind energy transfer between the modes both in degenerate and in secondary combination resonances are investigated. It is found that in the degenerate resonance interaction between oscillation modes, the energy may be transferred not only from lower to higher modes but also vice versa if the higher mode is excited at the zero time. This conclusion is valid not only for a liquid layer on the surface of a solid core but also for a drop.     

Nonlinear periodic waves on the charged surface of a finite-thickness ideal liquid layer

In the fourth order of smallness in the amplitude of a periodic capillary-gravitational wave travelling over the uniformly charged free surface of an ideal incompressible conducting liquid of a finite depth, analytical expressions for the evolution of the nonlinear wave, velocity field potential of the liquid, electrostatic field potential above the liquid, and nonlinear frequency correction that is quadratic in a small parameter are derived. It is found that the dependence of the amplitude of the nonlinear correction to the frequency on the charge density on the free liquid surface and on the thickness of the liquid layer changes qualitatively when the layer gets thinner. In thin liquid layers, the resonant wavenumber depends on the surface charge density, while in thick layers, this dependence is absent.     

Electrostatic stability of the liquid layer surface on a hard wettable cylindrical substrate

The wave motion in a cylindrical layer of an ideal conducting liquid on a hard rod kept at a constant electrical potential is calculated accurate to the first order of smallness in dimensional perturbation of the free surface. The instability of the free surface is also considered. A dispersion relation is derived. It is shown that the range of instability waves depends on only the electric field strength near the free surface and the instability increments of capillary waves decrease as the layer gets thinner. The influence of the hard rod becomes tangible only when its radius becomes comparable to the thickness of the liquid layer.     

Dynamics of the free surface of a conducting liquid in a near-critical electric field

Near-critical behavior of the free surface of a perfectly conducting liquid in an external electric field is considered. Based on an analysis of three-wave processes using the method of integral estimates, sufficient criteria for hard instability of a planar surface are formulated. It is shown that the higher-order nonlinearities do not saturate the instability, for which reason the growth of disturbances has an explosive character.     

Nonlinear nonaxisymmetric oscillations of a space-charged jet

The problem of nonlinear nonaxisymmetric oscillations of a jet of a space-charged dielectric (zeroconductivity) liquid is solved asymptotically. The solution is accurate up to second-order terms in initial deformation amplitude. It is shown that the difference between the amplitude values of second-order corrections to the solutions for perfectly conducting and perfectly dielectric liquids depends on the permittivity of the latter and may amount to several tens of percent. The permittivity of the liquid also governs the positions of internal resonances, in the vicinity of which nonlinear energy transfer between modes takes place.     

Exact solutions to the problem on the shape of an uncharged conducting liquid jet in a transverse electric field

Exact solutions are obtained for the problem of an equilibrium configuration of an uncharged cylindrical jet of a conducting liquid in a transverse electric field. The transverse cross section of the jet moving between two planar electrodes is deformed under the action of electrostatic forces (capillary forces play a stabilizing role). According to the solutions obtained, the initially circular cross section of the jet may be significantly (formally, unboundedly) stretched along the lines of forces of the field, and the boundaries of the jet asymptotically approach the electrodes.     

Electrostatic instability of the lateral surface of a viscous liquid finite-conductivity jet in a collinear electrical field

The influence of the finiteness of the charge transfer rate on the electrostatic instability of the lateral surface of a viscous liquid jet is studied. The study is based on the analysis of a dispersion relation for flexural-deformation capillary waves on the surface of the jet with allowance for charge relaxation. The jet is subjected to a superposition of two electrostatic fields one of which is collinear with the jet’s axis and the other is directed radially to the former. It is found that the finiteness of the potential equalization rate influences jets of a poorly conducting liquid most strongly. The charge relaxation shows up in the appearance of both periodic and aperiodic “purely relaxation” flows. Relaxation flows give rise to electrostatic instability in low-permittivity liquids. When the conductivity of the liquid drops, the instability growth rate of relaxation waves grows and their spectrum expands toward shorter waves. An increase in the charge surface diffusion coefficient introduces destabilization into the relaxation flows of the liquid, which may eventually become unstable.     

On the possibility of corona initiation at the surface of a liquid layer nonlinearly oscillating on the surface of a charged hailstone placed in a uniform electrostatic field

An expression for the electric field strength near a watered hailstone is derived in an approximation quadratic in the amplitude of capillary oscillations of a charged conducting liquid layer covering the hailstone. As the number of the mode governing the initial deformation of the equilibrium spherical free surface of the liquid layer increases and its thickness decreases, the electric field strength in the neighborhood of the capillary wave crests rises. Even in the case of small charges and low electric fields, the electric field near the hailstone is high enough to initiate a corona.     

Nonlinear oscillations of a charged layer of a conducting liquid on the surface of a solid spherical core

Nonlinear oscillations of a layer of an ideal incompressible perfectly conducting liquid on the surface of a charged melting hailstone (solid core) are studied using analytical asymptotic calculations of the second order of smallness in initial deformation amplitude. Specifically, it is shown that, when the thickness of the layer is much less than the characteristic linear size (radius) of the solid core, the size of the core considerably influences the amplitudes of capillary oscillation modes arising on the surface of the charged layer via nonlinear interaction. It is found that, as the liquid layer on the surface of the solid core gets thinner, the energy in the spectrum of nonlinearly excited modes is redistributed with its maximum shifting toward higher (larger number) modes.     

Nonlinear analytical asymptotic investigation of oscillations of nonaxisymmetric modes of a charged jet of an ideal liquid

Technical Physics - A jet of an ideal incompressible conducting liquid with a uniformly charged surface is considered. The jet moves at a constant velocity along the symmetry axis of its...     

On the stability of a nonaxisymmetric charged jet of a viscous conducting liquid

A dispersion equation is derived for axisymmetric and nonaxisymmetric capillary oscillations in a jet of viscous conducting liquid subjected to a constant potential. It is shown that conditions arising when the surface charge density in the jet is high cause the instability of nonaxisymmetric, rather than axisymmetric, modes with the resulting disintegration of the jet into drops of various sizes. This theoretical finding allows one to correctly interpret of experimental data for the spontaneous disintegration of charged jets.     

Capillary oscillations of a flat charged surface of liquid with finite conductivity

A dispersion relation is proposed and analyzed for the spectrum of capillary motion at a charged flat liquid surface with allowance made for the finite rate of charge redistribution accompanying equalization of the potential as a result of the wave deformation of the free surface. It is shown that when the conductivity of the liquid is low, a highly charged surface becomes unstable as a result of an increase in the amplitude of the aperiodic chargerelaxation motion of the liquid and not of the wave motion, as is observed for highly conducting media. The finite rate of charge redistribution strongly influences the structure of the capillary motion spectrum of the liquid and the conditions for the establishment of instability of its charged surface when the characteristic charge relaxation time is comparable with the characteristic time for equalization of the wave deformations of the free surface of the liquid. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 34–41 (August 1997)