| Abstract: | Experiments show that a weakly conducting fluid in a plane-parallel system of electrodes is set into motion if the field intensity is sufficiently great 1–5]. The loss of stability is due to the formation of charges near the electrodes and the influence of the Coulomb forces on these charges. The formation of the space charges is usually attributed to oxidation-reduction electrode reactions and bulk recombination of the ions formed at the electrodes 1–4]. In the present paper, the stability of a weakly conducting fluid in a plane-parallel system of electrodes with symmetric distribution of the space charge is studied. The methods of the theory of solution bifurcation are used to construct the stationary flow which arises after the loss of stability and to investigate the stability of this flow.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 20–26, July–August, 1981. |
