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Application of the lattice Boltzmann method to electrohydrodynamics: Deformation and instability of liquid drops in electrostatic fields

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  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

It is attractive and meaningful to apply the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to electrohydrodynamic (EHD) problems. As an important and fundamental problem in EHD, the behavior of freely-suspended liquid drops subjected to electrostatic fields was simulated with a 2-D LBM by means of the permittivity-density relation proposed by the authors and Peng’s multiphase LBM which can obtain high liquid-to-vapor density ratio and low liquid-phase compressibility. The phenomena and laws of deformation, especially the instable behavior of the liquid drops were well simulated. And two important critical parameters, i.e. the critical permittivity ratio and the critical electric-field strength were obtained. These results agree with the corresponding theories and experiments. The simulations show the particular advantages and potential of the LBM in studying multiphase electrohydrodynamic problems.

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Correspondence to Huang WeiFeng.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50375079)

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Huang, W., Li, Y. & Liu, Q. Application of the lattice Boltzmann method to electrohydrodynamics: Deformation and instability of liquid drops in electrostatic fields. Chin. Sci. Bull. 52, 3319–3324 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0530-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0530-4

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