Simulating the disintegration of a charged liquid jet

Abstract

4bsiruct -The complex nature of free-surface electrohydrodynamic flow and numerical difficulties associated with the implementation have traditionally limited simulation studies of this phenomena. In this paper, the simulation of a two-dimensional electrified liquid jet is described, and a set of time sequence graphs are used to illustrate the formation and breakup of the charged jet into droplets. Although free-surface electrohydrodynamic flow has been widely studied on an experimental basis. the results are generally fragmented and at present no theory can accurately explain many of the details of the observed phenomena. The equations describing the flow pattern of an electrified liquid jet are nonlinear and time variant. and analytical solutions are usually only available for simple geometries. In this paper the fluid flow model is motivated and the major numerical considerations of the code are described.