Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Kazimierz Adamiak

Abstract

Electric field induced flows, or electrohydrodynamics (EHD), have been promising in many fast-growing technologies, where droplet movement and deformation can be controlled to enhance heat transfer and mass transport. Several complex EHD problems existing in many applications were investigated in this thesis.

Firstly, this thesis presents the results of numerical simulations of the deformation, oscillation and breakup of a weakly conducting droplet suspended in an ambient medium with higher conductivity. It is the first time that the deformation of such a droplet was investigated numerically in a 3D configuration. We have determined three types of behavior for the droplets, which are less conducting than ambient fluid: 1) oblate deformation (which can be predicted from the small perturbation theory), 2) oscillatory oblate-prolate deformation and 3) breakup of the droplet.

Secondly, a numerical study of droplet oscillation placed on different hydrophobic surfaces under the effect of applied AC voltage including the effect of ambient gas was investigated. The presented algorithm could reproduce droplet oscillations on a surface considering different contact angles. It has been found that the resonance frequency of the water droplet depends on the surface property of the hydrophobic materials and the electrostatic force.

Thirdly, a new design of an electrowetting mixer using the rotating electric field was proposed which offers a new method to effectively mix two droplets over a different range of AC frequencies. Two regimes were observed for droplet coalescence: 1) coalescence due to the high droplet deformation, 2) coalescence due to the interaction of electrically induced dipoles.

Fourthly, the spreading and retraction control of millimetric water droplets impacting on dry surfaces have been investigated to examine the effect of the surface charge density and electric field intensity. The effect of the surface charge on the spreading of droplets placed gently on surfaces was investigated in the first part. It was found that the maximum spreading diameter increases with an increasing charge. In the second part, the impact of a droplet on a ground electrode was considered. It was also found that in order to keep the maximum diameter after the impact, less charge is needed for surfaces with lower contact angle.

Finally, the interaction between two identical charged droplets was investigated numerically. The effects of the impact velocity, drop size ratio and electric charge on the behavior of the combined droplet were investigated. It was shown that two conducting droplets carrying charges of the same polarity under some conditions may be electrically attracted. The formation of charged daughter droplets has been investigated and it was found that the number of the satellite droplets after collision appears to increase with an increase in the droplet charge.

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