Electrohydrodynamic-induced interactions between droplets

Abstract

Dispersion of droplets in an emulsion is commonly seen in several chemical, pharmaceutical and petroleum industries. Electric field has been shown to affect the stability of these dispersions. We study the dynamics of a pair of leaky dielectric droplets in a leaky dielectric liquid in the presence of an externally applied electric field. A pair of droplets may coalesce or repel each other in the presence of an electric field. Interactions between a pair of drops have been shown to be governed by the ratio, where and are the ratios of drop to ambient fluid electric permittivities and conductivities, respectively. When inertia is neglected, the droplets approach each other if 1]]>, whereas droplets repel when