Numerical simulation of the shape of charged drops over a solid surface

Abstract

In this work we study the static shape of charged drops of a conducting fluid placed over a solid substrate, surrounded by a gas, and in absence of gravitational forces. The problem can be posed, since Gauss, in a variational setting consisting of obtaining the configurations of a given mass of fluid that minimize (or in general make extremal) a certain energy involving the areas of the solid-liquid interface and of the liquid-gas interface, as well as the electric capacity of the drop. In [6] we have found, as a function of two parameters, Young's angle θYand the potential at the drop's surface V0, the axisymmetric minimizers of the energy. In the same article we have also described their shape and showed the existence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations such that, for given values of θYand V0, configurations for which the axial symmetry is lost are energetically more favorable than axially symmetric configurations. We have proved the existence of such bifurcations in the limits of very flat and almost spherical equilibrium shapes. In this work we study all other cases numerically. When dealing with radially perturbed equilibrium shapes we lose the axially symmetric properties and need to do a full three-dimensional approximation in order to compute area and capacity and hence the energy. We use a boundary element method that we have already implemented in [3] to compute the surface charge density. From the surface charge density we can obtain the capacity of the body. One conclusion of this study is that axisymmetric drops cannot spread indefinitely by introducing sufficient amount of electric charges, but can reach only a limiting (saturation) size, after which the axial symmetry would be lost and finger-like shapes energetically preferred.