Using electric fields to induce patterning in leaky dielectric fluids in a rod-annular geometry

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electric fields influence the pattern formation and stability of two immiscible fluids in a cylindrical annulus, deriving models and analyzing the conditions leading to interface singularities and patterning.

Contribution

It develops a long-wavelength model for leaky dielectric fluids in a cylindrical geometry under electric fields, capturing large deformations and interface singularities, with validation against full axisymmetric theory.

Findings

Electric fields induce patterning and interface deformations.

Finite-time and infinite-time singularities can occur, including touching solutions.

Leaky dielectric case shows one-side touching, matching experimental observations.

Abstract

The stability and axisymmetric deformation of two immiscible, viscous, perfect or leaky dielectric fluids confined in the annulus between two concentric cylinders are studied in the presence of radial electric fields. The fields are set up by imposing a constant voltage potential difference between the inner and outer cylinders. We derive a set of equations for the interface in the long-wavelength approximation which retains the essential physics of the system and allows for interfacial deformations to be as large as the annular gap hence accounting for possible touchdown at the inner or outer electrode. The effects of the electric parameters are evaluated initially by performing a linear stability analysis which shows excellent agreement with the linear theory of the full axisymmetric problem in the appropriate long wavelength regime. The nonlinear interfacial dynamics are investigated by carrying out direct numerical simulations of the derived long wave models, both in the absence and presence of electric fields. For non-electrified thin layer flows (i.e. one of the layers thin relative to the other) the long-time dynamics agree with the lubrication approximation results found in literature. When the liquid layers have comparable thickness our results demonstrate the existence of both finite time and infinite time singularities (asymptotic touching solutions) in the system. It is shown that a two-side touching solution is possible for both the non-electrified and perfect dielectric cases, while only one-side touching is found in the case of leaky dielectric liquids, where the flattened interface shape resembles the pattern solutions found in literature. Meanwhile the finite-time singular solution agrees qualitatively with the experiments of~\cite{Reynolds1965}.