while in the
interior, the electric field is zero, because the
drop is made of a conductor fluid. That means that
the electric potential is a constant at the surface.
The surface evolves because the normal component of
the surface velocity equals the normal
component of the fluid velocity.
Linear
stability of the surface
We can get some insight on the stability of the
droplet by looking at the linearized solutions of a
perturbed sphere of radius R
where the perturbing term is a spherical harmonic of
indices l and m, which describe the shape of that
particular mode. By substituting this expression
into the equations of motion and dropping all
quadratic terms we obtain g in terms of the charge
Q, surface tension and the viscosities of the fluid
in the exterior and interior of the drop
When this quantity is positive, the drop is
unstable, and when is negativ, it is stable. For the
case l=2, it gives the critical charge described
above.
Numerical
solution of the initial value problem
These equations of motion can be solved using the
Boundary Elements Method. First we write the
relation between the electric potential and the
charge density at the surface of the drop
Then we discretize the shape of the droplet with a
series of conical rings (for axi-symmetric
solutions) or with triangles (for general 3D
shapes), and the charge density sigma is solved from
the resulting linear system.
Then we repeat the same procedure for the velocity
of the fluid
where we have used the Green functions and the force
per unit area at the surface. At this point we have
the solved the velocity u. Then we move the surface
using this velocity where f is the capillary and
electric force.
As the surface may develop
regions of high curvature, we use an
adaptive grid, the size of the triangles
adapt to the local curvature of the surface:
they are smaller in regions of high
curvature. We use a combination of
techniques: elastic relaxation,
addition-deletion of triangles and modified
Delaunay triangulation.
Selfsimilar
dynamics
In
the following figures, we perturbed a
sphere with a low amplitude (0.1) mode
Y20, and then we let it evolve, the tips
formation is evident (in the above
figure, the viscosities inside and
outside the drop are equal, in the lower
one, the viscosity outside the droplet
is near zero)
Now we rescale the above figures with the
radius of curvature of the tip, and all
the asymptotic profiles lie in the same
curve. This is evidence of selfsimilarity.
The selfsimilarity exponent is close to
0.5.
Non
axisymmetrical simulations
The following image shows that axi-symmetric
droplets develop tips even if we do not restrict the
symmetry of the numerical grid to axial symmetry. It
suggests that the selfsimilar solution is stable
respect to non-axi-symmetric perturbations.
The next figure shows that even if the shape of
the droplet is FAR from axisymmetric, still it may
develop tips which are locally axisymmetric.
This is anothe example of the same fenomenon, with
a droplet with tetrahedral symmetry. The initial
shape, not shown in this images, is a sphere
perturbed with the mode Y32.
Finally, not all
droplets develop tips! If the initial charge is
more than twice the critical charge, the droplet
just begins to split without showing tips in the
intermediate steps. This example is also
interesting because it shows that the
axi-symmetry is mantained, however the numerical
grid is not axi-symmetric.
And the corresponding triangulation
And finally, the result that really matters: the
comparison with the experiments of Beauchamp
(simulation by Orestis Vantzos). The red drop is the
numerical simulation, the grey shapes are
photographs of real drops. In this setup, the drop
is subject to an external electric field.