Breakup of A Conducting Drop in A Uniform Electric Field

Under consideration for publication in J. Fluid Mech.
Breakup of a conducting drop in a uniform

electric field
Rahul B. Karyappa, Shivraj D. Deshmukh and Rochish M. Thaokar
Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai
- 400 076, India.
(Received ?; revised ?; accepted ?. - To be entered by editorial office)
A conducting drop suspended in a viscous dielectric and subjected to a uniform DC

electric field deforms to a steady state shape when the electric stress and the viscous
stress balance. Beyond a critical electric capillary number Ca, which is a ratio of the
electric to the capillary stress, a drop undergoes breakup. Although the steady state deformation is independent of the viscosity ratio of the drop and the medium phase, the
breakup itself is dependent upon and Ca. An extensive experimental and numerical
study is presented which indicates that there are three different kinds of axisymmetric
shapes prior to breakup (ASPB), the formation of lobes, pointed ends and non-pointed
ends. The axisymmetric shapes undergo transformation into non-axisymmetric shapes
at breakup (NASB) before disintegrating. It is found that the lobes, pointed ends and
non-pointed ends observed in ASPB give way to NASB modes of charged lobes disintegration, regular jets (that can undergo a whipping instability) and open jets respectively.
A detailed experimental and numerical analysis of the ASPB modes is conducted that
explain the origin of the experimentally observed NASB modes. Several interesting features are reported for each of the three axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric modes when
a drop undergoes breakup.
1. Introduction
The deformation and breakup of charged and uncharged fluid drops in the absence or
presence of an external electric field continue to be extensively investigated (Duft et al.
2003; Collins et al. 2008) owing to their importance in understanding the mysteries of
nature, such as the bursting of drops in thunderstorms as well as technological applications such as electrosprays and ink-jet printing (Ochs & Czys 1987; Fenn et al. 1989;
Park et al. 2007). Emulsification using electric fields is an easy alternative to flow induced
drop breakup and the former is reported to be more effective and economical than the
latter, especially when the medium phase is poorly conducting (Stone 1994) or is highly
viscous. When a fluid drop is suspended in an immiscible fluid it acquires a spherical
shape under the influence of interfacial tension and in the absence of any other force.
Such a neutral drop, when subjected to a uniform external electric field, deforms due
to the electric stresses that can be attributed to the contrast in conductivities and/or
the dielectric constants of the drop and the medium phase. When a conducting drop is
suspended in a dielectric medium, an axisymmetric deformation is seen which is a result
o2 ), and the capillary stress (/a) such that the
of a balance of the electric stress (e o E
axis of symmetry is always in the direction of the field (Allan & Mason 1962). The deforo2 /. Note that a, e , o , E
o and
mation depends upon the capillary number Ca = ae o E
are the drop radius, dielectric constant of the medium, permittivity of the free space,
Email address for correspondence: rochish@che.iitb.ac.in
Karyappa et. al.
the magnitude of the uniform electric field and the surface tension respectively. Taylor
(1964) argued that a shape corresponding to the second Legendre polynomial P2 (cos ) is
able to balance the electric stress leading to D = (9/16)Ca, where D = (L B)/(L + B)
is the Taylor deformation parameter, L and B being the lengths of the major and minor
axes respectively.
Although Taylors theory provides a good qualitative description for the deformation
of a Newtonian drop in an electric field, its analytical results are strictly valid for a drop
experiencing small deformations. Torza et al. (1971) observed that the deformations observed in their experiments showed deviation from Taylors theoretical prediction, especially at higher values of Ca. Ajayi (1978) extended Taylors linearised asymptotic theory
by including higher-order corrections for the nonlinear terms. Taylors theory though is
quite useful in describing the small deformations observed at low Ca, and has been used
to estimate the interfacial tension of liquid pairs (Moriya et al. 1986; Ha & Yang 2000;
Varshney et al. 2012). At larger deformation a numerical scheme, typically the Boundary
Element method (Lac & Homsy 2007) has been used to predict the degree of deformation.
Below a certain critical capillary number a conducting drop thus attains a steady shape
and an absence of flow in the drop and the medium phase is observed. As the capillary
number is increased beyond a critical value, Cac , the electric stress on the drop increases
until the surface tension can no longer balance the electric stress thereby resulting in
drop breakup. Taylor calculated the critical capillary number (Wilson & Taylor 1925) to
be around 0.2 using spheroidal drop approximation. Several experimental (Ha & Yang
2000), analytical (Taylor 1964; Ajayi 1978) and numerical (Miksis 1981; Sherwood 1988;
Basaran & Scriven 1989; Feng & Scott 1996; Dubash & Mestel 2007b,a) theories confirm
Cac to be around 0.2 0.02.
Although the steady state deformation and the onset of breakup has been adequately
studied in the literature, the same cannot be said of the dynamics of breakup, specifically
the effect of viscosity ratio and Ca, for Ca > Cac . The issue is of obvious relevance
in electro-emulsifiers where a variety of drop size in a system subjected to a uniform
electric field would mean realising different Ca. Similarly, the oils in which water drops
are suspended in applications such as crude processing, petroleum refining or in liquid
liquid extraction could have viscosity varying over a few decades.
Motivated by the above, this work addresses the effect of and Ca such that Ca > Cac
on the dynamics of breakup of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric and subjected
to a uniform electric field, using experiments and Boundary Element computations.
There have been a few experimental and numerical studies on the dynamics of drop
breakup. Experimentally two modes of breakup have been observed: (1) division of a
drop into two lobes connected by a thin thread and, (2) tip-streaming from the drops
with pointed ends (Vizika & Saville 1992; Moriya et al. 1986; Ha & Yang 2000; Eow
et al. 2001; Eow & Ghadiri 2003). Ha & Yang (2000) have examined the breakup modes
for Newtonian as well as non-Newtonian conducting drops above the critical capillary
number for combinations of fluids that led to different viscosity ratios. The capillary
number studied in their work was about 1.2 to 1.3 times Cac . Thus, effect of very large
capillary numbers was not investigated. Moreover, the dynamics of drop breakup was
not examined in detail. The mechanism of the breakup process as well as systematic
dependence on Ca and was not carried out in these studies. A major draw back of
these works was that the electrode separation was only a few times the drop size. This
typically leads to bridging of the electrodes at large deformation, thereby preventing
systematic investigations.
Likewise, there have been very few numerical analyses of the effect of viscosity ratio
and capillary number, with the studies based on the Boundary Element method (BEM)
Breakup of a Conducting drop
being more accurate and widely used. Sherwood (1988) studied the full time-dependent
low Reynolds number problem of drop deformation using the Boundary Element method.
When the conductivity of a drop was high compared to that of the surrounding fluid,
division of a drop into two lobes was observed. Pointed ends were predicted when the
permittivity of the drop was high compared to that of the surrounding fluid. The present
work addresses the effect of and Ca > Cac on drop deformation and breakup, which was
also the focus of the numerical studies of Dubash & Mestel (2007b). They carried out numerical computations, based on the Boundary Element method, of the slow axisymmetric
deformation of a viscous (Dubash & Mestel 2007b) as well as an inviscid conducting drop
(Dubash & Mestel 2007a) surrounded by a viscous insulating fluid under uniform electric
field at high Ca > Cac . Three different modes of breakup were observed depending upon
the values of and Ca. These breakup modes were formation of lobes at the two ends
of a drop, pointed ends with definite cone angles and drops with non-pointed ends. The
lobes formed were found to have a charge greater than the Rayleigh limit. A slightly
dimpled shape at the end of the lobe was also observed. They also calculated the electric
capillary number for the remaining central drop (we refer to it as the mother drop in this
work) and found it to have a Ca > Cac (based on the radius of the mother drop). They
suggested that the mother drop can therefore further undergo formation of another pair
of lobes. The regions in the (Ca, ) parameter space where each of the three types of
breakup occur were mapped out.
The computations of Dubash & Mestel (2007b) were not bench marked against experimental results since there is no such systematic study available in the literature. The left
right asymmetry observed in few of the computations of Dubash & Mestel (2007b) also
lead to a possibility of errors in their calculations. Dubash & Mestel (2007b) speculate
about the lobes breaking into multiple smaller droplets by the Rayleigh instability. The
possible non-axisymmetric mode of breakup could not be computed since in their study
the computations were based on an axisymmetric formalism. The ultimate fate of these
drops could therefore only be guessed.
Motivated by the above discussion, the specific objectives of the current work are: (1)
To understand the dynamics of the deformation as well as breakup of a conducting drop
suspended in a viscous dielectric fluid and subjected to a uniform DC (direct current)
electric field experimental results are presented as a phase diagram in the (Ca )
parameter space. The experimental data obtained in this study are presented as a phase
diagram as suggested by Dubash & Mestel (2007b). The experimental data are also
compared with an in-house code that uses Boundary Element method (since a discrepancy
was found between the experimental results obtained in this work and the predictions of
Dubash & Mestel (2007b)) (2) To understand the mechanism of the three axisymmetric
breakup modes using further experiments and computations and (3) To construct, using
experiments, a phase diagram for the non-axisymmetric breakup modes, hitherto not
reported in the literature, which could be the non-axisymmetric continuation of the
axisymmetric modes of lobes, pointed and non-pointed ends.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
We consider the deformation and breakup of a perfectly conducting fluid drop suspended
in a dielectric fluid subjected to a uniform electric field. The objective here is to examine
the effect of viscosity ratio of the drop to the medium phase , and that of the electric
capillary number Ca on the breakup modes. The experimental realization of different
Karyappa et. al.
Notation
W
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
G10
C
S
Pa.s
S/m
0.001
0.0016
0.01
2.13
0.0242
1.54
0.04
1.01
0.07
0.68
0.094
0.45
0.109
0.29
0.174
0.16
0.282
0.08
0.454
0.038
0.76
0.078
0.79 4 1011
0.38 4 1012
System Continuous Drop

Kg/m3
Phase
Phase
996
1155
1168
1180
1192
1204
1215
1226
1237
1248
1256
970
980
PC1
PC2
PC3
PC4
PC5
PC6
PC7
PC8
PC9
PC10
PC11
PC12
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
C
S
W
G1
G2
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
G10
G10
0.00126
0.0127
0.0306
0.05
0.0886
0.114
0.138
0.22
0.357
0.575
0.956
2
108
1011
1011
1011
1011
1011
1010
1010
1010
109
109
109
Table 1: The measured material properties and the list of experimental systems used to
study the deformation and breakup of perfectly conducting drop in dielectric fluid. (W:
Mili-Q water, G1-10: glycerol-5M NaCl solution mixtures, C: castor oil, S: silicone oil).
R is the ratio of conductivities of oil to aqueous phase.
Eo
e
e
Drop
(a)
(b)
Figure 1: (a) Schematic drawing of the experimental setup (1 - High-voltage supply, 2 High speed camera, 3 - Stereo zoom, 4 - Cuvette with copper electrodes placed parallel
to each other, 5 - Fibre optic illuminator, 6 - Computer control) and (b) schematic of
the drop suspended in dielectric fluid in uniform electric field.
viscosity ratios was achieved by using castor oil (780 cSt, Sigma Aldrich) or silicone
oil (380 cSt, Merck) as the medium phase and glycerol mixed with 5M NaCl (S. D.
Fine Chemicals Ltd.) solution as the conducting drop phase. Deionised water (mili-Q
conductivity, = 0.0016 S/m) was used to prepare an aqueous solution for the drop
phase. Very high capillary numbers were realized predominantly by increasing the electric
field as well as by increasing the drop size in a few cases.
Table 1 presents relevant physical parameters for each experimental system and also
lists the different systems used in this work. The ratio R of the conductivity of the medium
to the drop phase is very small validating the assumption of a perfectly conducting drop
(Lac & Homsy 2007). Note that Ha & Yang (2000) report a value of R = 105 and lower
to represent a perfectly conducting drop.
2.2. Experimental setup and procedures
A schematic diagram of the experimental setup for studies in deformation and breakup
of a drop is shown in figure 1. The setup consisted of a rectangular plastic cuvette with
a high voltage generator connected to two parallel copper plate electrodes of size 10 mm
(L) 3 mm (B) 45 mm (H). The distance between the two electrodes was kept at 4
mm. A DC electric field was generated by applying a high voltage (ES60P-5W, Gamma
High Voltage Research Inc., Ormond Beach, FL) across the electrodes. The high voltage
source was capable of generating DC voltages up to 60 kV in steps of 120 V. The drop
phase was formed by dispensing the drops through a 2 ml disposable syringe resulting
in drop sizes of 200500 m. In a typical experiment, a drop was placed at the center
of the space between the two copper electrodes and an electric field was applied. The
deformation and breakup of the drop was recorded with a high-speed camera (Phantom
V 12, Vision Research, USA) and observations were made using a stereo zoom microscope
(SMZ1000, Nikon Instruments Inc.) with a frame speed of 5000 fps. The large parallel
electrodes (as compared to the drop) ensured that the electric field was almost uniform.
The densities of the drop phase and the surrounding medium phase were almost similar
and therefore buoyancy effects were discounted. A drop had a very low terminal settling
velocity in the high viscosity medium and negligible displacement in the gravity direction
was observed during the course of the experiments. The time required for the drop to
move its own distance was of the order of 3040 seconds but the breakup time scale was
about 60 ms.
The deformed shape of the drop was axisymmetric with the axis of symmetry parallel
to the applied electric field and was calculated from the captured images. The degree of
drop deformation was defined using the Taylor deformation parameter,
D=
LB
,
L+B
(2.1)
where L and B are the major and minor axes of the deformed drop, respectively. The
electrical capillary number is defined as,
Ca =
2
ae o E
o
,
(2.2)
where a is the drop radius, e is the dielectric constant of the surrounding fluid, o is
o is the applied electric field strength calculated as 4V /L
the permittivity of vacuum, E
where 4V is the potential applied between the electrodes and L is separation between the
electrodes and is the interfacial tension. The critical electric capillary number, below
which a drop shows steady prolate spheroid deformations, was determined and different
drop breakup modes were studied. Time-dependent drop deformation and breakup were
recorded using a high speed camera at capillary numbers below, at and above the critical
value Cac .
2.3. Measurement of material properties
The conductivities of the conducting fluids used in this study were measured by a conductivity meter (Orion 145 A+, Thermo Electron Corporation, USA). The conductivity
of the oil was measured using dielectric analyzer (ALPHA Dielectric Analyzer V5.3N,
Karyappa et. al.
Novocontrol Technologies, Germany). The viscosities of the fluids were determined by

a rheometer (Anton Paar: Model MCR Physica 301). The viscosities were measured for
shear rates ranging from 1 s1 to 100 s1 .
As the Newtonian fluids used in this study are viscous and have almost the same densities, it is indeed difficult to measure the interfacial tension using conventional techniques
such as pendant drop, ring or plate methods. Therefore a simple way of determining the
interfacial tension, based on the linear asymptotic theory for variation of the deformation
D of a conducting drop with the electric capillary number Ca, at low values of Ca was
used. The linear relationship between the degree of deformation and the electric capillary
number is given by (Taylor 1966)
D=

2 + 3
9
2
2
(1
+
R
2SR
)
+
3R(1
SR)
Ca
16(2R + 1)2
5(1 + )
(2.3)
9
Ca,
16
(2.4)
which reduces to
D=
for a conducting drop in a perfect dielectric (R = 0). Note that R, S, are the ratios of
resistivity (e /i ), permittivity (i /e ) and viscosity (i /e ) of the drop to those of the
continuous phase, respectively, where , and are the electrical conductivity, dielectric
constant and the viscosity of the fluids. Subscripts i and e represent the inner drop phase
and the external medium phase respectively. A similar strategy to determine interfacial
tension has been reported elsewhere (Moriya et al. 1986; Ha & Yang 2000; Varshney et al.
2012). Thus Taylors theory is a convenient way to determine the interfacial tension at
small capillary numbers, and is also used in this study.
3. Numerical Study
The numerical computations of drop deformation were conducted using an in-house
code that employs the Boundary Element method. The details of the code are reported
in our previous publications (Deshmukh & Thaokar 2012; Mhatre et al. 2012; Deshmukh
& Thaokar 2013) and salient features are presented in the appendix A. The code was
used to numerically study the axisymmetric deformation of Newtonian drops subjected to
uniform electric field in the Stokes flow regime. The leaky dielectric model implemented
in the code enabled study of conducting, perfect dielectric and leaky dielectric drop and
medium phase.
In the numerical study, the Laplace equation for the electric field and the Stokes
equations are non-dimensionalised. Specifically, we use a the radius of the drop to nono2 )), presdimensionalise the length scales. The non-dimensional time t = t/(e /(e 0 E
2
E
o , where E
o is the applied electric field. Note that the
sure p = p/(e 0 Eo ), E = E/
dimensional and the non-dimensional quantities are represented with and without a tilde
respectively. The analysis is restricted to axisymmetric deformations which offers the
advantages that the domain of integration is reduced to one-dimensional, and azimuthal
integrations can be performed analytically but does not a priori assume a fore-and-aft
symmetry perpendicular to axis of revolution.
0.35
0.08
Taylor (1964)
Torza (1978)
0.07
Vizika & Saville (1992)
Ajayi (1978)
Ha & Yang (2000)
BEM
0.30
Eow & Ghadiri (2003)
0.06
PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)
0.25
PC7
PC11
0.05
PC12
0.20
PC1 (Eq. Oil)
0.04
0.15
0.03
0.10
0.02
0.05
0.01
(b)
(a)
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.00
0.06
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
Ca
Ca
1 .2
0.40
0.30
Interfacial Tension (
Calculated
0.25
0.35
0 .8
0.30
0.20
0 .4
0.25
0.15
mN/m)
Adjusted
18
20
19
20
17
18
25
27
16
--
0.10
0 .0
0.05
0.20
0.00
0.00
0.05
-0 .4
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
Ca
0.15
0.10
-0 .8
0.05
(c )
(d)
-1 .2
-2
-1
0.00
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
Ca
0.06
Calculated
0.05
(mN/m)
(mN/m)
PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)
Taylor (1964)
PC7
PC7
Ajayi (1978)
PC11
BEM
PC11
PC12
PC12
PC1 (Eq. Oil)
PC1 (Eq. Oil)
0.04
Adjusted
PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)
0.03
0.02
0.01
(e)
0.00
0.00
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
Ca
Figure 2: (a) Comparison between D vs Ca for a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric

oil in the linear regime for the different viscosity ratios (: = 0.00126, = 18 mN/m;
: = 0.138, = 19 mN/m; 4: = 0.958, = 17 mN/m; 5: = 2, = 25 mN/m;
C: = 0.00126, = 16 mN/m). Also shown are experimental data from the literature.
The continuous grey line is the BEM computation curve for a perfectly conducting drop,
the continuous dark grey line is the second order nonlinear theory of Ajayi (1978) and
the dashed line is the first-order asymptotic leaky dielectric theory of Taylor (1966),
(b) Comparison of degree of deformation of a conducting drop as a function of the
electric capillary number (Ca) for the entire range of Ca, for different viscosity ratios, (c)
Normalised experimental drop shape at critical capillary number for all viscosity ratios
(symbols) mapped onto non-dimensional drop shape from BEM prediction (solid line),
(d) Degree of deformation of a conducting drop as a function of the electric capillary
number (Ca) with determined from the linear regime for different viscosity ratios. The
inset shows the D vs Ca curves for different viscosity ratios obtained by adjusting the
value of the interfacial tension () so that they collapse on the curve obtained by BEM.
Also the actual estimated values of interfacial tension and the values after adjustment
are shown, and (e) Comparison of degree of deformation of a conducting drop as a
function of the electric capillary number (Ca) in the linear regime for different viscosity
ratios obtained with calculated as well as adjusted values of interfacial tension ().
Karyappa et. al.
Methodology
Minimum Energy Principle
Spheroidal approximation
Numerical method
Boundary Element method
Finite Element method
Finite Element method
O(Ca2 ) asymptotic solution
Experiments
Experiments
Cac
Dc at Cac
Reference
0.205
0.289
0.210
0.310
(Taylor 1964)
0.209
0.293
(Miksis 1981)
0.206
0.259
(Sherwood 1988)
0.207
0.291
(Basaran & Scriven 1989)
0.210
0.270
(Feng & Scott 1996)
0.147
0.109
(Ajayi 1978)
0.214
0.220
(Ha & Yang 2000)
0.2044
0.2
(Dubash & Mestel 2007a)
0.204
0.232
Present study
0.212
0.225
Present study
0.0079 0.0146
Table 2: Comparison of the critical capillary number Cac and the degree of deformation
Dc , at Cac for a perfectly conducting drop suspended in a dielectric oil, obtained in
this work with those in the literature. Experimentally determined values are the average
values of experiments for systems PC1, PC7, PC11 and PC12.
4. Deformation and breakup of a perfectly conducting drop

suspended in a dielectric fluid
4.1. Steady state deformation of conducting drops with varying viscosity ratio
Figure 2 shows the degree of deformation, D at steady state, plotted versus the electric
capillary number, Ca, for four systems (PC1, PC7, PC11 and PC12) with different viscosity ratios = 0.001, 0.1, 1 and 2. In PC1, PC7 and PC11 systems the conducting drop
is suspended in castor oil while in PC12 system the drop is suspended in silicone oil (for
details see table 1). The deformation curve for a perfectly conducting drop, calculated
using the Boundary Element computations, is included for comparison. The deformation
curve is independent of the viscosity ratio. Each experiment as well as simulation was
started with a step increase in E0 from zero to the prescribed value for that experiment
or simulation on an initially spherical drop. Also shown is the curve D = (9/16)Ca as
predicted by the linear theory and which was also used to estimate the interfacial tension
of an oil-aqueous system in the small Ca limit (figure 2(a)). Ajayis (Ajayi 1978) second order theory is also plotted. The largest capillary number in the deformation curves
corresponds to the critical capillary number Cac above which a drop becomes unstable
and breaks. For the system PC1, the deformation curve is averaged over six drops of
different sizes. For all the other systems, the deformation is obtained by averaging over
three drops of different sizes. Also plotted are data from the literature and the scatter in
the data in this study is found to be comparable with that in the literature (figure 2(b)).
The steady-state deformation is independent of the viscosity ratio for a conducting
drop in a dielectric due to a balance of electric and capillary stresses. A good agreement is found between numerical and experimental results in systems with very different
viscosity ratios. The linear asymptotic theory underestimates the degree of deformation
while the BEM computations slightly overestimate the degree of deformation in the high
deformation regime. Figure 2(c) shows the normalised experimental drop shape at Cac
for all viscosity ratios, mapped onto non-dimensional drop shape from BEM prediction.
The BEM estimates for the degree of deformation at a particular capillary number are in
reasonable agreement with the experimentally estimated values (figure 2(d)). The inset
in the figure 2(d) shows the collapse of all the experimental data on the deformation
= i
e
LOBES
CHARGED LOBE
DISINTEGRATION
Function
of
Ca=
NON-POINTED ENDS
OPEN JETS
a e o E 2
and
= i
POINTED ENDS
JETS
(a)
(b)
Figure 3: Schematic (actual images in the contrast mode) of different types of modes
of conducting drop suspended in a dielectric oil for (a) Axisymmetric Shapes Prior to
Breakup (ASPB), (b) Non-axisymmetric Shapes at Breakup (NASB).
curve for a perfectly conducting drop, calculated using the Boundary Element method,
by tweaking the interfacial tension () value by about 2 mN/m (calculated and the
adjusted values of the interfacial tension are given in the table in figure 2(d)).
Table 2 shows the comparison of the critical capillary number Cac and the degree of
deformation Dc , at Cac , obtained in experiments and computations in this study, with
those in the literature. The values for Cac and Dc are independently comparable with
the values reported in the literature, and a scatter of around 10% is observed.
4.2. Dynamics of drop breakup at Cac
The steady state axisymmetric deformation of a drop increases, until a critical capillary
number Cac is reached, beyond which a time-independent stationary deformed state is no
longer attainable. For Ca much higher than Cac a drop deforms axisymmetrically with
time, ultimately undergoing a non-axisymmetric shape transformation that culminates
into breakup. We refer to the shape just prior to a drop losing its axisymmetry as,
the Axisymmetric Shape Prior to Breakup (ASPB). The drop then acquires a NonAxisymmetric Shape at Breakup (NASB) that eventually leads to its breakup.
Figure 3 shows a schematic (actual images in contrast mode) of the different modes
for the two types of breakup (ASPB and NASB) for a conducting drop in a dielectric oil
in a uniform electric field. Note that these shapes are not steady state stationary shapes,
but instead are the contours of a drop undergoing axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric
breakup. The Axisymmetric shape prior to breakup (ASPB) type shows three different
modes of breakup (figure 3(a)). The two well known modes are (i) formation of two lobes
at the ends of a drop, and (ii) formation of pointed ends (Taylor cones)(Taylor 1964).
Other than these two modes, a third mode was recently reported in the numerical studies
(Dubash & Mestel 2007b) and was also observed in our experiments namely, (iii) drops
with non-pointed ends. These three breakup modes of the ASPB type are dependent
upon the viscosity ratio () and the electric capillary number Ca > Cac . Figure 4(a)
shows the evolution of the degree of deformation with time for values of Ca around Cac .
Experiments could not be conducted for Ca slightly greater than Cac . At these values of
Ca, the slow evolution of the drop shape beyond Cac meant possibility of onset of leftright asymmetry in the experiments on the drop breakup process, making systematic
observation of axi-symmetric deformation difficult (figure 4(b)). The experimental drop
shapes for = 0.00126 for Ca (Ca = 0.21) above Cac are shown in figure 4(b). The drops
10
Karyappa et. al.

Ca
= 0.05
= 0.138
= 1.0
= 0.00126
/s
0.22
3.12
0.23
1.48
0.24
0.26
0.25
0.097
Ca = 0.206
(b)
t
18.69
= 0.05
20.0
(c)
= 0.138
33.0
= 1.0
(a)
Figure 4: (a) Evolution of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric fluid in time

from BEM computations. Inset shows D vs t for a smaller range of time and D, (b)
Experimental asymmetric breakup of a water drop suspended in a castor oil (Ca = 0.22
0.25 just above Cac = 0.21) (Scalebar: 200 m). The black shading at the edges of the
images are actually the electrodes, and (c) symmetric breakup of a conducting drop (Ca
= 0.206 just above Cac = 0.204) predicted in BEM computations.
were placed at the center of the cuvette. When the capillary number was just above
the critical value, the drop deformed into a prolate spheroid and translated towards
the electrode. The experimental ASPB shapes did not have left-right symmetry and
therefore could not be compared with BEM calculations. It should be mentioned though
that Moriya et al. (1986), in their experimental study, report time dependent deformation
of drops in high viscosity medium for Ca slightly greater than Cac . Their results could
not be compared with computations in the present work due to numerical errors in our
BEM calculations at low values of . This issue is discussed later in section 4.3.
Figure 4(a) shows that a constant value Dc = 0.21 is reached for Cac = 0.204 for all the
values of the viscosity ratios. The dynamics depend upon the viscosity ratio, and drop
deformation becomes slower as increases (as seen in the inset of figure 4(a)). This can
be attributed to an increased viscosity of the drop phase (note the non-dimensionalisation
means that viscosity of the outer medium is constant when is varied). The deformation
for Ca= 0.208, for all the viscosity ratios, does not reach a steady value indicating drop
breakup. The deformation for Ca = 0.208 which is greater than Cac = 0.204 sensitively
depends upon the value of resulting in the three ASPB modes. Remarkably the value
of D = DASP B at which a drop breaks by the ASPB mode just before the onset of
NASB, depends upon the viscosity ratio, and is independent of Ca for an entire range of
Ca investigated in this work (DASP B = 0.59, 0.72 and 0.76 for = 1.0, 0.138 and 0.05
respectively). That DASP B is independent of the Ca even at very large values of Ca, is
interesting since the mechanism of breakup is very different for different viscosity ratios
and the deformation is remarkably large at high values of Ca where non-linear effects are
dominant (figure 5(a)). The DASP B measured from experiments for high Ca as well as
predicted from BEM are plotted in the inset of figure 5 and a very encouraging match is
observed. The degree of deformation (DASP B ) of the ASPB drop shapes are measured
as shown in the figure 5(b).
0.8
11
1
Filled Symbols: EXPT
0.9
Open Symbols: BEM
ASPB
0.8
0.6
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.1
10
ASPB
0.01
0.4
0.2
0.00126
0.138
0.956
2.0
0.0
0
10
15
20
25
30
35
t (ms)
(a)
Lobes
B
Non-Pointed Ends
B
L
Pointed Ends
B
L
(b)
Figure 5: Evolution of degree of deformation for ASPB modes (DASP B ) plotted for
different viscosity ratios () as observed in experiments. The various curves for a given
are for different Ca (0.25 1.2). The inset shows DASP B (at which drop breaks by
the ASPB mode just before the onset of NASB) values for varying . The error bars
represents the deviations from the mean, which are obtained by measuring DASP B for
all Ca. (b) Schematic (actual images in contrast mode) showing measured L and B of
the drop shape when lobes, non-pointed or pointed ends occur. The table shows the drop
size range used to give the results of figure 5(a). The distance between the two electrodes
was kept at 4 mm.
12
Karyappa et. al.

4.3. Breakup modes, Ca >> Cac
Although a drop drifted to one of the electrodes accompanied by an asymmetric deformation for Cac < Ca < 0.25 systematic experiments could be done when Ca 0.3 or
greater. Figure 6(a) shows in more detail, the three modes of ASPB and their variation
with and Ca. At low values of ( = 0.00126 in figure 6(a)), breakup by lobe formation is observed. The mode of lobe formation is unaltered for a value of Ca as high
as 1. The agreement observed between BEM calculations and the experimental images
for = 0.00126 is not very encouraging and around 20% volume change is observed in
computations. Due to proximity to eigen solutions V was high even when Euler method
was able to resolve the interface convection. We have reported the volume change data
at steady state or failure of numerical scheme. Although, towards the end, the chosen
value of time step (t = 103 ) might not be enough to resolve the interface convection.
To check this, we simulated the same case ( = 0.00126) with lower time stepping (t =
104 and t = 105 ) for Euler method and obtained the same results. In case of 0
or , the double layer representation of the integral equation for the fluid flow
has two marginal eigenvalues which in turn yield no solution or infinite number of solutions. There are methods suggested in the literature (Pozrikidis 1992) to regularize these
marginal eigenvalues. However these have not been used in this study. As also argued by
Dubash & Mestel (2007a), the = 0 is a singular limit and a modified formalism for the
Boundary Element calculations has to be used. In our work, the computation framework
suggested by Pozrikidis (1992) is used. The volume change though is less than 1% for
> 0.05 and good comparison between theory and experiments is expected.
When the viscosity ratio is increased ( = 0.0886), lobe formation is still seen at lower
values of Ca (Ca = 0.25). However, at very high values of Ca (Ca = 1.2), the lobes
disappear and non-pointed ends are seen. When the viscosity ratio is further increased
( = 0.357), pointed ends are seen at lower capillary numbers (Ca = 0.4) whereas nonpointed ends are seen at higher capillary numbers (Ca = 1.2). At still higher values of
viscosity ratio ( = 2), pointed ends are observed at all capillary numbers (figure 6(a)).
An excellent agreement is found between experimentally observed shapes and predictions of BEM for > 0.05 and for all the values of Ca. It should be noted that the
estimates of time do not match exactly though. The comparisons provided are therefore for slightly shifted computation times as compared to the experimental values. The
mismatch is probably due to errors in the estimations of interfacial tension. Similarly
the dielectric constant of the oil at the interface could be different than that of pure oil
possibly due to saturation with water.
Figure 7 (a) shows the elaboration of the three experimentally observed ASPB modes
through a phase diagram in the (Ca, ) space. The modes in ASPB namely lobes, nonpointed and pointed ends can be distinguished from the images of a deformed drop (figure
6(a)) and are used for the construction of the phase diagram. The results for the region
in the phase diagram where Ca is slightly higher than Cac (Ca 0.3 1.5Cac ) are
discussed next. At low values of < 0.13 the phase diagram shows a region of lobe
formation with the lobes remaining axisymmetric (filled circles ). The points circled in
the phase diagram are elaborated in figure 6). For 0.13 0.2, the lobes disappear
and so do the necks of the lobes, the ends are not sharp and we describe this region as
non-pointed ends (cross ). Pointed ends begin to appear for values of 0.2 and greater.
These results are in qualitative agreement with the predictions of Dubash & Mestel
(2007b) and are reproduced in this work using BEM computations (details are in the
appendix). The results of the experimental study, the BEM predictions and the results of
Dubash & Mestel (2007b), are plotted together as phase diagrams in figure 7(c). The BEM
1.0
26.6
1.2
30.8
27.4
0.25
t /ms
0.3
t /ms
32.6
1.2
25.8
0.6
31.2
22.0
0.4
= 0.0886
0.4
= 0.00126
Capillary Number , Ca
13
146.8
=2
(a)
1.2
1.0
= 0.357
33.6
0.3
0.25
33.6
34.2
35.2
= 0.0886
0.6
1.2
= 0.00126
0.4
34.0
0.4
32.0
27.0
153.0
= 0.357
(b)
=2
Viscosity Ratio,
Figure 6: Different breakup modes of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric oil. (a)
Experimental Axisymmetric Shapes Prior to Breakup (ASPB) () and shape comparison
with the BEM computation shapes (), (b) Experimental Non-Axisymmetric Shapes at
Breakup (NASB) (Scalebar = 200 m).
14
Karyappa et. al.
calculations of Dubash & Mestel (2007b), indicate that the lobe formation is completely
suppressed for > 0.2 and pointed ends appear at 0.6 unlike the experimentally
observed values of 0.13 and 0.2 respectively. Our BEM results indicate a value of 0.15 and
0.5 for the disappearance of lobes and appearance of pointed ends respectively. It should
be mentioned that it was not always possible to sharply distinguish between pointed and
non-pointed ends experimentally, and this is represented by the hashed or shaded region
in the phase diagram.
At higher values of Ca the transition from lobes to non-pointed ends and then to
pointed ends occur at higher values of (for example = 0.09 and = 0.4 respectively
for Ca = 0.8, as seen in experiments).
The phase diagram shows that the experimental and the BEM calculations in this
work are in good agreement with each other. The poor comparison between the experiments and computations at the non-pointed ends-pointed ends phase boundary can be
attributed to the ambiguity in exactly classifying the shapes as pointed or non-pointed.
The comparison of the calculations of Dubash & Mestel (2007b) with the experimental
data, though, shows a poor agreement.
The axisymmetric shapes prior to breakup undergo a transformation to non- axisymmetric shapes at breakup (figure 3(b)). Three different non-axisymmetric modes are
observed, which evolve from (although not exactly) the three axisymmetric modes discussed earlier. We call these three non axisymmetric shapes at breakup (NASB) as (i)
non-axisymmetric breakup by disintegration of charged lobes, (ii) open jets (jets emerging from a blunt non-pointed end) and (iii) regular jets (regular jets emanating from the
conical ends of a drop) that often end up as a whipped jet.
Figure 6(b) shows in more detail, the three modes of NASB and their variation with
the same values of and Ca as discussed earlier for the corresponding ASPB case. Thus
the ASPB, in figure 6(a) undergo breakup as NASB in figure 6(b). At low values of ( =
0.00126 in figure 6(b)), the axisymmetric lobes undergo a non-axisymmetric breakup. The
mother drop (central region of the drop) elongates into a cylindrical shape that increases
in length as the capillary number increases (from Ca = 0.3 to 1.0 for = 0.00126 in figure
6(b)). When the viscosity ratio is increased ( = 0.0886), the lobes are converted into
asymmetric discs which undergo a non-axisymmetric breakup. Interestingly, the NASB is
similar at low and higher capillary numbers in the low viscosity ratio regime (Ca = 0.25
and 1.2 in figure 6(b)) contrary to the suggestion of Dubash & Mestel (2007b). When the
viscosity ratio is further increased ( = 0.357), the pointed ends of ASPB, seen at lower
capillary numbers give way to a regular jet. The non pointed ends of ASPB at higher
capillary numbers for a given (say = 0.357, Ca = 1.2), however, lead to open jets. At
still higher values of = 2 and greater, only well formed regular jets are observed which
often show a non-axisymmetric whipping instability (figure 6(b)).
The modes for NASB are shown in the phase diagram (see figure 7(b)). The two
lobes formed in the ASPB mode of lobe formation, have charge above the Rayleigh limit
(Dubash & Mestel 2007b) which possibly causes them to break into several droplets. In
the phase diagram this breakup mode is termed as charged lobe disintegration. For low
values of Ca, 0.25 < Ca < 0.4, at low values the charged lobe disintegration mode
is observed, which vanishes completely for > 0.22. Regular jet formation occurs for
> 0.2 in the low Ca limit. The regular jet undergoes a whipping instability (or kink
instability), which is discussed later in detail (section 4.5). We call this the regular jet
mode and is observed for > 0.2 for Ca 0.2-0.4. A third mode of breakup namely open
jets was observed when a drop forms non-pointed ends in ASPB and breaks as open jets.
The open jet mode though is observed only for high capillary numbers (Ca > 0.4).
In some sense, the lobes, the non-pointed ends and the pointed ends modes in ASPB
Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)
15
(a)
(b)
~ 1.6
~ 0.7
~ 0.22
~ 0.7
NP
oj
Ca
cld
j
~ 0.13
~ 0.5
~ 0.2
~ 0.6
(c)
~ 0.13
~ 0.2
(d)
Figure 7: Regions of (Ca, ) parameter space showing different breakup modes of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric oil. (a) Axisymmetric Shapes Prior to Breakup
(ASPB) (Experimental data; : Lobes, : Non-pointed ends, J: Pointed ends), (b) NonAxisymmetric Shapes at Breakup (NASB) (Experimental data; : Charged lobe disintegration, +: Open jets, : Jets ). The drop deformation images for circled data points in
(a) and (b) are shown in figure 6. (c) characterization of the experimental phase diagram
showing Axisymmetric Shapes Prior to Breakup (ASPB) regions, : Experimen:BEM,
: Dubash & Mestel (2007b) (L - Lobes, NP - Non-pointed ends
tal,
and P - Pointed ends). The shaded region near NP-P boundary represents ambiguous
NP-P modes. (d) characterization of the experimental phase diagram showing Axisymmetric Shapes Prior to Breakup (ASPB) as well as Non-Axisymmetric Shapes at Breakup
(NASB), : ASPB,
: NASB. (cld - charged lobe disintegration, oj - open jets
and j - regular jets (Pointed)).
16
Karyappa et. al.

(b)
/ms
1.92
9.9
2.45
12.6
3.40
17.5
3.65
18.8
3.90
20.1
(c)
(a)
Figure 8: Breakup of a water drop suspended in dielectric oil. (a) Experiments: System
PC1 (, Ca, ) = (18, 0.25, 0.00126), Scalebar = 200 m. The top-left inset shows the
position () in the experimental parameter space of figure 7(c). Both dimensional and
non-dimensional times are shown. The black shading at the edges of the images are
actually the electrodes, (b) BEM computations: (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.00126), (c) Variation
of volume of the drop with respect to the non-dimensional time t, (Ca, ) = (0.25,
0.00126): BEM computation results.
are predecessors to the charged lobe disintegration mode, the open jets and the regular
jets in NASB respectively. However this is not always true. This is demonstrated in
figure 7(d) which shows the combined experimental phase diagram in the (Ca, ) plane
for ASPB and NASB. The discontinuous line represent the modes for ASPB namely L,
NP, P indicating Lobes, Non-pointed and Pointed ends. The continuous lines represent
the modes for NASB. The letters cld, oj and j indicate charged lobe disintegration, Open
jets and Regular jets. Interestingly the phase boundaries do not coincide for the ASPB
and the NASB modes (figure 7(d)) and it is observed that there is a fairly large region
in the phase diagram in which a drop has pointed ends in the ASPB regime but breaks
by the open jet mode in the NASB regime. The pictorial phase diagram, both for ASPB
and NASB modes, is given in the appendix B and C respectively.
4.4. Lobes in ASPB and charged lobe disintegration mode in NASB in the low viscosity
ratio regime
In the low regime, the ASPB mode of lobe formation is followed by the NASB mode
of charged lobe disintegration breakup.
Figure 8(a) shows the dynamic evolution of the lobes and compares the experimental
a
m
90
112
110
105
98
Ca
0.3
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
VL /VO
0.2762
0.2968
0.2821
0.2857
0.2880
0.0284
0.0033
0.0106
0.0064
0.0042
a
m
140
118
112
83
75
Ca
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
0.4
17
VL /VO
0.3164
0.2803
0.2968
0.3039
0.3154
0.0059
0.0043
0.0033
0.0042
0.0043
Table 3: Effect of electric capillary number and drop size on the volume of the lobes
formed as a fraction of the original drop for = 0.00126.
results (for PC1 system, = 0.00126) for Ca = 0.25 with BEM computations figure
8(b). The inset also shows the location of the system in the (Ca, ) parameter space.
Deformation and breakup images presented in figure 8(a) are for a drop of radius a = 275
m. When the electric field is applied, a drop first forms a prolate spheroid (t = 9.9 ms)
and elongates until it forms a highly elongated prolate spheroid with rounded ends (t =
12.6 ms) which then dramatically splits into two lobes joined by a slender cylindrical neck
(t = 18.8 ms). Since the ratio of the drop size to the electrode separation was intentionally
made larger in this case, approximately 276 m/4mm against 100 m/4mm in all the
other reported experiments (for reason explained later), the lobes at the two ends of a
drop bridged the two electrodes (t = 20.1 ms) before breakup (the black shading at the
edges of the figure 8(a) are the electrodes). This type of breakup of a conducting drop
has been reported earlier by several authors using experimental (Torza et al. 1971; Ha &
Yang 2000) as well as axisymmetric computations (Dubash & Mestel 2007b; Lac & Homsy
2007). The comparison of the experimental and BEM calculations is poor for = 0.00126
(figure 8(b)), because of the large error in volume conservation at low viscosity ratios. The
comparison for higher viscosity ratios is encouraging though (figure 6(a)) and a detailed
comparison for = 0.0866 is presented later in this subsection. The volume fraction of
the original drop that goes into the lobes is estimated for different drop sizes and Ca
for = 0.00126 from the experimental data (table 3). A single lobe is found to have
a volume that is approximately 0.3 times the size of the original drop for = 0.00126
and is independent of the size of the drop and the capillary number. The variation of
the lobe volume fraction with Ca in experiments is found to be in agreement with the
BEM calculations especially for higher values of (See table 4). BEM comparisons are
made for all values of > 0.03 (table 4). At low values of = 0.00126 and 0.0127,
the volume change in BEM computations was large and not deemed appropriate for
comparison (figure 8(c)). Unlike the predictions of Dubash & Mestel (2007b), the volume
of the lobes in our computations is found to be independent of the capillary number in
the low viscosity ratio regime. This can be attributed to the fact that the ASPB mode
of lobes, at very low is observed even at very high values of the capillary number.
However, a systematic decrease of the volume of the lobes is observed with an increase
in for the mode of breakup by lobes in the ASPB regime.
The dynamics of drop deformation in the ASPB mode of lobe formation are shown
in figure 9(a) (inset) with the corresponding estimates of the surface charge density.
At small times, the curvature is highest at the poles (in a deformed drop the shape is
represented by the second Legendre mode at low Ca, or by a prolate spheroid at slightly
higher Ca), and so is the charge density. At very long times the lobe formation leads to the
charge density being high at the poles and the neck. The curvature at the neck is positive
18
Karyappa et. al.
0.00126
0.0127
0.0306
0.05
0.0886
0.114
0.138
Ca
0.25
0.295
0.149
0.063
0.098
0.022
0.027
0.018
0.025
0.010
0.014
0.0015
0.3
0.276
0.129
0.075
0.081
0.046
0.041
0.035
0.035
0.014
0.018
0.4
0.297
0.154
0.073
0.091
0.042
0.058
0.031
0.029
0.013
0.5
0.278
0.134
0.083
0.085
0.053
0.068
0.031
0.023
0.016
0.6
0.282
0.143
0.081
0.085
0.054
0.069
0.026
0.034
0.017
0.7
0.316
0.138
0.085
0.097
0.044
0.064
0.034
0.036
0.8
0.286
0.148
0.087
0.097
0.051
0.074
0.035
0.029
0.9
0.304
0.124
0.073
0.089
0.041
0.071
0.037
1.0
0.288
0.145
0.080
0.086
0.054
0.068
0.032
1.1
0.315
0.119
0.088
0.083
0.056
0.064
0.034
1.2
0.280
0.152
0.084
0.092
0.052
0.068
0.033
Table 4: Effect of capillary number Ca and the viscosity ratios on the volume of the
lobe formed as a fraction of the original drop. (The numbers in Black: Experimental and
Grey: BEM).
due to large azimuthal curvature and the charge on a lobe is therefore of the same sign
everywhere. The calculations of Dubash & Mestel (2007b) as well as our computations
indicate that the mother drop, after the separation of the lobes from the original drop,
would be above the critical capillary number indicating secondary breakup of the mother
drop via lobe formation. The process of the breakup of the mother drop should continue
till the capillary number of the mother drop falls below the critical capillary number
(Cac = 0.204) (column 4 of table in figure 9(b)).
We first present results which show multiple breakup (up to three or four times) of the
mother drop in the low regime. Note that Dubash & Mestel (2007b) did not continue
the BEM computations after the ASPB state, since an axisymmetric formalism was used
in their work. In this work too, the mathematical formulation is axisymmetric.
Figure 10 shows the time snapshots of a water drop (system: PC1) breakup in castor
oil. The parameters are also represented on the (Ca, ) phase space (Ca = 0.4, =
0.00126). Initially the drop deforms into a prolate spheroid and then continues to deform
until two lobes form at the ends (figure 10(a), t = 0 to 37.8 ms) resulting in an ASPB
mode of formation of lobes. The lobes then break into multiple droplets (figure 10(a), t
= 38 to 39 ms) in a non-axisymmetric manner. An important question of interest here
is what happens to the lobes and to the mother drop? Most experiments reported in
the literature report the ASPB mode of lobe formation, although not in elaboration.
The BEM computations in the literature too are restricted to the ASPB limit of lobe
formation.
Eow & Ghadiri (2003) report a few experiments on the breakup of conducting drops
in which lobes form and detach from the ends of a drop. They too observe in one of
their experiments that a lobe forms at one end of a drop, detaches, and then breaks
into three smaller droplets. However, the breakup is highly asymmetric thereby creating doubts about possible influence of electrodes on the drop breakup. Eow & Ghadiri
(2003) did not present extensive high speed images of the breakup process. Moreover, the
proximity of the drop to the electrode (due to small electrode separation) did not allow
investigations beyond the first breakup. Additionally, asymmetric drop breakup makes
C h a r g e D e n s ity
3 .0
2 .5
2 .0
2 .4
t
2 .5
2 .6
19
1 8
t in c r e a s in g
1 2
2 .7 5
6
0 .0
- 0 .2
- 0 .4
- 0 .6
- 0 .8
- 1 .0
N o r m a liz e d D r o p L e n g th
m e a su r e d fr o m th e e q u a to r
1 .5
1 5
t in c r e a s in g
1 .0
1 0
0 .5
5
- 0 .8 5
0 .0
-6
-4
-2
- 0 .9 0
- 0 .9 5
1 0
1 2
X
(a)
Ca
0.25
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
Volume of a single
Charge as a
New Ca for the
lobe as a fraction of multiple of the remaining central
the original drop
Rayleigh limit
Mother drop
0.0986
0.0913
0.0850
0.0975
0.0865
0.0917
2.33
3.45
4.48
4.95
5.32
5.72
0.223
0.341
0.521
0.696
0.922
0.999
(b)
Figure 9: (a) The computed shape of an initially spherical drop at times t = 2.4, 2.5,
2.6 and 2.75 for (Ca, ) = (0.30, 0.05). Shown in the inset is the surface charge density
for each time and also the 3D plots of the drop. (b) Charge on the lobes at the point of
pinch-off and new Ca for the remaining central Mother drop for various values of Ca for
a drop of = 0.05.
the interpretation difficult. The above shortcomings are systematically removed in the
present work and this is discussed next.
The dynamics of breakup of a conducting drop in this study was investigated by
placing a drop midway between the two electrodes. A fairly large electrode spacing was
maintained (0.4 cm for a typical drop size of 100 m). This ensures that finite size effects
due to presence of the electrodes on the hydrodynamics as well as electrostatic effects
are minimized. Only those experiments in which the breakup is nearly symmetric are
analysed. Instances of asymmetric breakup were few and were rejected. This enabled us
to see multiple drop breakup events in low systems primarily because of two reasons,
(i) the drop to electrode separation ratio was very small and (ii) the capillary numbers
realised were large.
20
Karyappa et. al.
(a)
/ms
38
38.2
30
38.4
35.8
(c)
(b)
36.8
38.6
37.8
39
(e)
40
45
41.2
(d)
48
42.2
43.8
52
Figure 10: Breakup of a water drop suspended in castor oil (a, Ca, ) = (112 m,
0.40, 0.00126). (a) ASPB (lobe formation). The top-left inset shows the position () in
the experimental parameter space of figure 7(c) and schematic of coulombic fission, (b)
breakup of first lobe pair, (c) breakup of second lobe pair, (d) breakup of third lobe pair
(The left and right images in (c) and (d) are the magnified images of the lobes), (e)
breakup of remaining central cylindrical thread. The black shading at the edges of the
images are actually the electrodes (Scalebar = 200 m).
The lobes formed at the two ends of the mother drop have charges that are equal
in magnitude and opposite in sign, and they move off rapidly away from the central
mother drop (see top-left inset of figure 10(a)). To understand the breakup process the
events at 38 ms were further discretized into smaller time steps. Figure 10(b) shows the
sequence of events leading to the first breakup of the lobes. A dimple is first formed at
the electrode facing pole of the lobe. The dimple then grows creating a crater of sort
with an outer ring. This aspect will be further discussed in detail later. Once the first
pair of lobes break off, a second pair of lobes forms (t = 40 ms in figure 10(c)). This
suggests that the capillary number of the mother drop (after the separation of first pair
of lobes) is above critical value. This is in agreement with the BEM calculations reported
in column 4 of table in figure 9(b). The second pair of lobe then pinches-off and again
21
breaks into multiple smaller droplets (figure 10(c)) suggesting that the charge on them
could be above the Rayleigh limit. Once the second pair of lobe breaks, the capillary
number of the mother drop continues to be above critical value and the third pair of
lobes is observed (t = 42.2 ms in figure 10(d)). These lobes again pinch-off and break
into multiple smaller droplets. After this there is no further formation of lobes at the end
of the remaining drop. Instead, it keeps on elongating creating a cylindrical thread that
breaks into multiple droplets which emanate from the highly stretched mother drop, akin
to a Rayleigh Plateau instability (figure 10(e)) ultimately leading to a very fine emulsion.
This sequence of drop breakup events leads to a complex structure between the electrodes
and happens at a fairly low capillary number of 0.4.
The electric capillary number was varied from 0.25 to 1.2 and it was observed that the
lobes in ASPB always led to the charged lobe disintegration mode in NASB regime. In
some cases, when the drop was even smaller than the drop shown in figure 10(a), there
was no subsequent formation of lobes after detachment of the first pair. Instead, the
remaining drop continued to elongate and the breakup was as shown in figure 10(e). Thus
the number of breakups encountered by the mother drop depends upon the initial size of
the mother drop. This is indeed because the volume fraction of the lobes is independent
of the capillary number (table 3).
The dynamics of deformation and breakup of a charged drop has been mostly reported
in liquid-air systems (Duft et al. 2003; Grimm & Beauchamp 2005). Building up charge
on a drop in liquid-liquid systems is difficult as compared to that in liquid-air system,
where evaporation is used to accumulate and build up the charge. This is probably the
reason why there is hardly any mention about Rayleigh breakup in liquid-liquid systems.
The numerical results obtained in this study as well as that of Dubash & Mestel
(2007a,b) indicate that for the experimental parameters, the lobes indeed have a charge
larger than the critical charge (the charge above which a drop breaks in the absence of
electric field (Rayleigh 1882))(column 3 of table in figure 9(b)). Note that the multiple of
R
3/2
dA)/(8aL ), where n is the
charge above the Rayleigh limit is given by Q/Qc = ( n
unit normal and aL is the non-dimensional radius of the lobes and dA is the differential
area. Therefore, as conjectured by Dubash & Mestel (2007a,b) the lobes should possibly
break into several smaller droplets by a Rayleigh-kind instability after the lobes detach
from the mother drop.
To understand the mechanism of the breakup of lobes, the close-ups of the images
depicting the dynamics of dimple formation are shown in figure 11. At low viscosity
ratios, a dimple is formed at the end of the ASPB stage of drop breakup (figure 11(a),
t = 49.4 ms). The formation of dimple is actually also seen in the BEM calculations
(figure 11(d)). The BEM calculations could not be continued due to numerical failure,
possibly since a non-axisymmetric instability is admitted, and the code is essentially
axisymmetric. Figure 11(a) shows the sequence of images that elucidate the formation
of dimples on the lobes for = 0.00126 and Ca = 0.3. A distinct lobe is observed that
undergoes a non-axisymmetric instability before breakup. Figure 11(b) shows the closeup
of experimental images of the breakup for = 0.0886 and Ca = 0.25. These parameters
enable comparison with BEM calculations. The deformation of an initially spherical drop
into two lobes in an experiment happens at around a non-dimensional time of t = 3.33
that corresponds to a dimensional time of t = 316 ms. The close-up of the lobes then show
a dramatic formation of a dimple that grows inwards, aided by the higher viscosity ratio,
and a fairly well developed axisymmetric crater is observed for non-dimensional time of t
= 3.37, corresponding to dimensional t = 320 ms. The BEM calculations predict shapes
which are in fair agreement with the experimental shapes, although the time does not
22
Karyappa et. al.
= 0.00126
/ms
49.4
49.6
49.8
50.2
50.0
50.6
50.4
50.8
(a)
DIMPLE FORMATION
(b)
= 0.0886
PINCH-OFF
(LOBES FORMATION)
3.35
LOBE
BREAKUP
3.79
3.37
1.26
4.21
3
3.38
4.74
3.26
R
3.39
3.33
t = 3.66
5.27
3.48
(c)
(e)
DIMPLE
FORMATION
(d)
Figure 11: (a) Dimple formation and breakup of the lobe: system PC1 (Ca, ) = (0.30,
0.00126). The top-left inset shows the position () in the experimental parameter space of
figure 7(c), (b) Breakup of a viscous conducting drop suspended in dielectric oil: system
PC5 (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.0886), Scalebar = 200 m. Inset shows location () of the point
on the experimental parameter space of figure 7(c). The black shading at the edges of
the images are actually the electrodes, (c) BEM computations: (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.0886),
(d) 3D plot constructed using 2D contour data (seen at the back of the figure) of the
drop showing dimple formation, (e) Variation of volume of the drop with respect to the
non-dimensional time t, (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.0886): BEM computation results.
match exactly (figure 11(c)). It should be noted that no other fitting parameter has been
used in the calculations. The shape of the drop, before the BEM calculations fail due to
numerical instabilities (at non dimensional time t = 3.66), agrees remarkably well with
the experimental images (figure 11(d)). A very well formed crater seen in experiments is
quite accurately predicted by the numerical computations. The volume change in BEM
calculations is negligible during this large deformation process (figure 11(e)). It is well
known that when a drop falls under gravity, dimple is formed at the bottom of the
23
t=0
t = 1.30
t = 2.20
t = 2.59
t = 2.75
t = 2.80
X
Figure 12: BEM results for the velocity around, and Maxwell stress on, a conducting
drop (Ca, ) = (0.3, 0.05). Black arrows show the velocity while red arrows show normal
stresses on the drop interface.
drop (Pozrikidis 1990a,b; Mukherjee & Sarkar 2011). Dubash & Mestel (2007a,b) found
a dimpled shape at the end point of the lobe although they could not continue the
computations thereafter. In the experiments conducted in this study, dimples are indeed
seen at the lobes. The dimple is actually better seen in the images in the figure 13(a)
(note that the figure is for a different Ca though).
The physics of the breakup of a drop in electric field is complicated and is not very
well understood. Dubash & Mestel (2007a,b) proposed that the drop could undergo a
Rayleigh instability since the net charge on the drop is greater than the critical charge or
the Rayleigh limit. It should be noted that the problem is complicated by the presence
of electric field, such that one could actually be looking at a charged drop in an electric
field. It is known that the critical capillary number in a charged drop is considerably
lower (Basaran & Scriven 1989; Grimm & Beauchamp 2005) than the critical capillary
number of an uncharged drop (Ca = 0.21). Moreover the drop breakup is asymmetric.
However, such results are not hitherto reported (in the literature) in the low viscosity
ratio regime for drops in liquid-liquid systems.
The breakup of a drop beyond critical capillary number in the low viscosity ratio
regime can be understood from figure 12. The figure shows that at t = 0, the electric
field is larger at the poles as compared to that at the equator. The unsteady deformation
of the drop is primarily driven by the pulling caused by the tensile Maxwell stress at the
poles. However, the low viscosity ratio leads to a large pressure, and thereby resistance,
24
Karyappa et. al.
at the stagnation point which is exactly at the poles. This results in retardation of the
deformation at poles. The continuity of mass then results in the fluid flowing away from
the poles resulting in a local extensional flow. The large resistance by the outer fluid then
results in sharp corners with a large curvature at the turning point, and therefore a large
Maxwell stress that leads to formation of a flat disc. The region of high curvature (turning
point on the drop interface) continues to get pulled in the direction of the electric field,
leading to a depression (or a dimple) at the poles.
The configuration of a flattened interface of the low viscosity drop phase moving into
a high viscosity phase is reminiscent of the viscous fingering instability (The SaffmanTaylor instability) (Taylor 1950; Lewis 1950; Saffman & Taylor 1958). It can occur when
a more viscous fluid is displaced by injecting a less viscous one. The critical wavelength
above which the interface becomes unstable for neutrally buoyant systems is given by
(Saffman & Taylor 1958),
lcrit = 2 1/2 b[12U (m d )]1/2
(4.1)
where b is the width of the moving interface. For m = 0.79 Pa-s, d = 0.001 Pa-s,
U = 0.1 0.25 m/s (from typical low experiments) and = 0.018 N/m, the critical
wavelength for the present study found to be about 0.5 0.8b. b here is the size of the
lobe, and typically could be b 75 m. This leads to atypical size of the instability of
lcrit = 54 m (the most unstable wavelength is lmax = 3 lcrit = 93 m) in experiments
which is less than b, thereby suggesting the possibility of the Saffman-Taylor instability.
The growth rate for the Saffman-Taylor instability, when the viscosity leads the instability, is given by
2 3 b2
(4.2)
3 l3
where k = 2/l (l = 0.7 b). The inverse growth rate with typical values of parameters
leads to tinstab = 0.1 ms which is found to be of the same order as in experiments (texp
= 0.2 ms).
In figures 13(a) and 13(b) we present the NASB for lobes as a function of viscosity
ratio at a capillary number of 0.3. At very low viscosity ratio ( = 0.00126), a dimple
is formed at the end of the drop in the ASPB mode, which while progressing inwards into
the lobe, undergoes a massive non-axisymmetric instability. An almost similar behaviour
is observed at = 0.0127. The instability though is less intense, and the dimple progresses
inwards to a much greater extent. At = 0.0866, the dimple proceeds sufficiently inwards,
and the liquid drains enough, aided by the higher viscosity ratio, to form a cup like
structure. The breakup is affected by disintegration of the rim.
Figures 13(c) and 13(d) compare the NASB deformation for viscosity ratio of 0.0866
at two different capillary numbers. The figure shows that at higher capillary numbers,
the breakup is rapid. Thus, the NASB breakup of lobes is dependent on the capillary
number and the viscosity ratio. The breakup is by dimple formation followed by a rapid
disintegration at low viscosity ratios and high capillary numbers, and by disintegration
of a thin rim of a cup like structure at relatively higher viscosity ratios and low capillary
numbers.
The disintegration of a charged lobe results in several charged daughter droplets, that
deforms into an egg or tear like shape (Grimm & Beauchamp 2005). For a droplet carrying
some charge Q, this tear shape becomes unstable at a critical electric field (a function
of net charge), and is characterized by the formation of a single jet from the sharper
end (Grimm & Beauchamp 2005). Figure 14 shows the breakup of a charged drop and
the events observed for PC1 system when the lobe breaks into several smaller droplets
s = [(m d )/(m + d )]U k
25
(a)
t
/ms
49.4
49.6
49.8
50.0
50.2
50.4
50.6
50.8
(b)
t
/ms
30.8
40.0
40.2
40.4
40.6
40.8
50.2
50.6
(c)
t
/ms
62.6
63.4
63.6
63.8
64.0
64.2
64.4
65.6
(d)
t
/ms
35.6
35.8
36.0
36.2
36.4
36.6
36.8
37.0
Figure 13: Dimple formation and breakup of the lobe. (a) system PC1 (Ca, ) = (0.30,
0.00126), (b) system PC2 (Ca, ) = (0.30, 0.0127), (c) system PC5 (Ca, ) = (0.25,
0.0886), (d) system PC5 (Ca, ) = (0.80, 0.0886). (Scalebar = 200 m). Insets on the
left side of each subfigure show position () on the experimental parameter space of figure
7(c).
as shown in figure 14(a) (Ca = 0.6) and 14(b) (Ca = 1.0). The charge density on the
o = 4U e acm , where
tear shaped drop is calculated from experimental images as QE
cm is the Hadamard-Rybczynski factor (Hadamard 1911; Rybczynski 1911) given as
cm = (3 + 2)/(2( + 1)) for liquid spheres. In the limit, where 0 (for inviscid drops,
in this case = 0.00126), cm 1 and the drag force is 4U e a. The value of the charge
on the lobes and the tear shaped drop, Q in experiments for = 0.00126 is found to be
in good agreement with the charge density of the lobes estimated numerically (although
for = 0.05). U in the expression is calculated from successive time frames. The figures
14(a,b) show migration as well as secondary breakup of a charged drop in experiments.
4.5. Drops with pointed ends in the ASPB and regular jets in the NSPB regime
For relatively higher viscosity ratios, a drop undergoes prolate deformation and forms
pointed conical ends at the poles. The deformation is axisymmetric, and takes the form
referred to earlier (section 4.3) as the drops with pointed ends mode in the ASPB regime.
The curvature becomes high at these conical tips, leading to a very high charge density
and Maxwell stress. Although the conical jet regime has been discussed extensively in
experiments (Allan & Mason 1962; Garton & Krasucki 1964; Taylor 1964; Moriya et al.
1986) and computations (Ramos & Castellanos 1994; Stone et al. 1999; Dubash & Mestel
2007b), we present in this work a detailed comparison of experiments and theory which
has not been adequately addressed earlier.
Figures 15(a-e), show the comparison of the numerical results in this study with those
obtained by Dubash & Mestel (2007b) for the pointed modes in the ASPB regime for
= 1. A good comparison is observed at short times. At long times though, a significant
deviation is observed between the two.
To validate the numerical code, computed results were compared against experiments
at the same viscosity ratio = 0.956 (slightly different from the value = 1.0 studied
by Dubash & Mestel (2007b)). The numerical computations were also conducted for the
26
Karyappa et. al.
(a)
QE=4 U e a
/ms
QE=4 U e a
(b)
41
51.8
45.8
42.2
39.8
/ms
39.8
42.4
35.8
32.8
43
30.8
44
44.4
Lobe (attached to a mother
drop, shown in t = 39.8 ms)
Qexpt = 0.698 x 10-10 C
QR = 0.304 x 10-10 C
Q expt
=2.30
QR
( = 0.05, Ca = 0.6)
Q BEM
= 4.48
QR
Tear shaped drop (red arrow)

-10
Qexpt = 0.576 x 10 C
QR = 0.101 x 10-10 C
Q expt
=5.71
QR
45
46
47.6
Lobe (attached to a mother

drop, shown in t = 30.8 ms)
Qexpt = 0.486 x 10-10 C
QR = 0.217 x 10-10 C
Q expt
=2.24
QR
( = 0.05, Ca = 1.0)
Q BEM
=5.32
QR
Tear shaped drop (red arrow)

Qexpt = 0.580 x 10-10 C
QR = 0.140 x 10-10 C
Q expt
=2.74
QR
Figure 14: Charged drop above critical Rayleigh limit breakup under electric field. Experimentally observed charged drop breakup for, (a) (Ca, ) = (0.60, 0.00126) and (b)
(Ca, ) = (1.0, 0.00126) (Scalebar = 400 m). Insets on the bottom-right side of each
subfigure show position () on the experimental parameter space of figure 7(c). The black
shading at the edges of the images are actually the electrodes.
same value of = 0.956. A very good agreement was observed between the experimental
and the numerically predicted shape, although the dynamics was not captured accurately
(figure 15(f)). We believe that this could be possibly due to errors in the estimation of
properties such as R, and of water.
Since the work of Taylor (1964), the existence of cones at the surface of a charged fluid
is well known. A balance of Maxwell stress and tension admits P1/2 (cos ) as solution
to the potential. The resulting conical shapes, known as Taylor cones, have semiangle of
49.3 . The cones in the present study are not static but dynamic, and are referred to as
dynamic Taylor cones (Betel
u et al. 2006). It is found that the semiangle of these dynamic
Taylor cones is much lower (Dubash & Mestel 2007b) than the semiangle of static Taylor
cones (49.3 ) due to contribution of viscous stresses. Angles 6 30 were reported (Reznik
et al. 2004), although in these systems the effect of proximity to the electrodes on the
cone angle cannot be neglected. Figure 16 shows the evolution of pointed ends at the
poles. The semiangle of the cone decreases from about 60 to 29 for ASPB for a drop
(Ca = 0.30, = 2.0) as shown in the inset. Also shown in the inset of figure 16 is the
comparison between experimental ASPB shape and BEM predicted shapes. A very good
agreement was observed although the dynamics is not captured accurately.
The semiangles measured for the conical tips formed at the ends of a drop are tabulated
in the table 5. For comparison the values of the semi-angles from the studies of Dubash
& Mestel (2007b) for uncharged drops in electric field and on Taylor cones in charged
1.5
(a)
27
1.5
t = 0
t = 1.68
(e)
1.0
0.5
0.0
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
1.0
1.5
(b)
t = 0.4
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
0.0
-2.0
2.0
1.5
(c)
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
t = 0.8
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
1.5
-0.5
2.0
BEM (present) (t = 2.25)
= 0.956
-1.0
1.5
BEM (present) (t = 2.05)
1.0
0.5
-1.5
1.0
EXPT (t = 2.25)
1.5
1.0
0.0
-2.0
0.5
2.0
Ca = 0.7
0.5
0.0
t = 1.2
(d)
-0.5
1.0
-1.0
0.5
(f)
-1.5
0.0
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
-4
-3
-2
-1
Figure 15: Comparison of experimental and BEM predicted shape prior to breakup of a
viscous conducting drop in a dielectric fluid in the pointed ends ASPB regime. (a)-(e)
are the shape comparison from the BEM computations of (Dubash & Mestel 2007b) and
the present BEM computations (Ca, ) = (0.70, 1.0). : BEM present, : Dubash &
Mestel (2007b), (f) experimental shape comparison with the present BEM computation
predicted shape.
drops without electric field (Betel

u et al. 2006) are also tabulated. It was observed in
both the earlier studies that the conical tip angle slightly varies (22 28 ) with an
increase in the viscosity ratio indicating the role of viscous stresses. For a given ,
the angle shows a weak dependence on Ca. This is in contradiction to the results of
Dubash & Mestel (2007b) who find a weak dependence on Ca but an insignificant effect
of the viscosity ratio. It should be noted though that there could be errors of 1 in the
determination of cone angles from the experimental and computation drop profiles. A
good agreement between theory and experiments is observed for the Taylor cones (table
5) and the deformed drop shapes (figure 6(a)).
The reason for the cone angle of the dynamic Taylor cones observed in this study to
be less than 49.3 (as predicted by Taylor) can be understood from figure 17. The figure
shows the role of fluid flow, and correspondingly fluid normal stresses on the Taylor cone.
The Maxwell stress is maximum at the poles. The deformation caused by them at the
28
Karyappa et. al.
EXPT
Ca
0.25
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.2
0.575
22.50
23.39
23.81
22.76
22.58
23.19
23.03
22.53
22.82
23.25
-
BEM
0.956
24.79
24.39
24.65
24.67
24.37
25.20
25.42
25.96
24.46
24.54
24.37
2.0
27.10
26.65
26.69
26.45
27.37
-
0.956
25.58
25.62
24.05
23.54
24.51
24.76
24.95
-
0.575
23.52
23.43
-
Dubash &
Mestel (2007)
Ca
0.6 1.0 2.0

0.207 19 19 19
0.209 19 19 19
0.21 19 19 19
0.22
- 20 20
0.23
- 21 20
0.24
- 21 21
0.25
- 22 21
0.30
- 24 24
0.40
- 30
2.0
28.56
29.68
29.82
27.02
26.90
-
Betel
u
et. al. (2006)
(deg)
0.3
20.66
0.4
21.66
0.6
23.31
0.9
24.80
1.0
25.24
1.1
25.57
1.24
25.85
1.66
26.73
2.0
26.89
3.3
27.50
5.0
27.50
Table 5: Semiangle (in degrees) of the conical tips as a function of Ca and the ratio of
viscosities .
3.0
60
EXPT (t = 5.80)
BEM
2.0
BEM
50
(t = 5.09)
EXPT
, (deg)
2.5
40
30
1.5
20
1.0
-1
-3.0
-1.5
0.0
1.5
3.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
t = 5.59
-3
-2
t = 5.65
-1
t = 5.70
t = 5.74
t = 5.79
t = 5.80
Figure 16: Measured shapes of the drop (Ca, ) = (0.30, 2.0) in a dielectric fluid at different time moments. Left inset shows comparison of measured experimental and BEM
cone semi-angles with respect to non-dimensionalized time. Right inset shows experimental ASPB shape comparison with the BEM computation predicted shape.
t = 1.0
29
t = 1.5
t = 2.01
Figure 17: BEM results for the velocity around, and Maxwell stress on, a viscous conducting drop (Ca, ) = (0.70, 1.0). Black arrows show the velocity while thick red arrows
show normal Maxwell stresses on the drop interface.
poles is not resisted by the low viscosity medium, resulting in further increase of the
curvature. It should be noted that a low value of the Taylor cone angle is observed even
in the case of = 1, which indicates that the tangential viscous stresses (net tangential
stresses are absent at the interface for = 1) do not really contribute to the Taylor cone.
The normal viscous stress and the pressure at poles result in further reduction of the
Taylor cone from an angle of 49.3 .
A drop with pointed ends in the high regime, eventually leads to the ejection of a
thin jet from these conical pointed ends (figure 18(a)) referred to as regular jets (NASB)
in this work. The ejected jet undergoes a whipping instability caused by electrostatic
repulsion and initiated at small bends in a thin jet. The jet is semi-stable and breaks
into smaller droplets (electrospraying). Figures 18(bf) are the jets observed for different
viscosity ratios. The jets are thinner for high values of (figure 18(bc)) and Ca (figure
18(ef)). In a similar observation, Aryafar & Kavehpour (2009, 2010) noticed jets in their
study to explore the role of DC electric fields on neutrally charged coalescing conducting
droplets.
4.6. The ASPB mode, drops with Non-pointed ends and the NASB mode of open jets
Drops with non-pointed ends are seen for = 0.13 0.2 for all the values of Ca and also
for > 0.2 for high Ca. The axisymmetric non-pointed ends mode represents a shape
30
Karyappa et. al.
(a)
/ms
0
80
140
147
170
(b)
190
(d)
(a,c)
(f) (e)
210
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
(f)
Figure 18: Regular jets in the NASB regimes of conducting drops for high viscosity ratio
. (a) system PC12 (Ca, ) = (0.30, 2.0). The black shading at the edges of the images
are actually the electrodes, (b) system PC12 (Ca, ) = (0.60, 2.0), (c) system PC12 (Ca,
) = (0.30, 2.0), (d) system PC11 (Ca, ) = (0.40, 0.956), (e) system PC10 (Ca, ) =
(0.25, 0.575), (f) system PC9 (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.357) (Scalebar = 200 m). Inset on
the top-left side shows position ((a),(b),(c),(d),(e),(f )) on the experimental parameter
space of figure 7(c).
that is intermediate between the lobes and the pointed ends. The mode was suggested
by Dubash & Mestel (2007b) and experimentally shown in figure 6(a) (Ca = 1.2, =
0.357) indicating that non-pointed ends lead to regular jets at low Ca (0.21 - 0.4). The
open jet NASB mode is absent in this range of Ca.
At higher Ca, though, (Ca > 0.4) the open jet mode is seen for a range of viscosity
ratios. This NASB mode was also observed by Moriya et al. (1986), although systematic

t
31
/ms
(b)
(c)
20.0
25.0
(a)
66.0
(a)
0
0
25.6
28.0
42.4
33.4
52.0
44.0
(b)
(c)
Figure 19: Effect of electric capillary number Ca on the breakup mode. (a) Regular jets
from pointed ends (Ca, ) = (0.25, 0.575), (b) Open jets from non-pointed ends (Ca, )
= (1.2, 0.357). The black shading at the edges of the images are actually the electrodes,
and (c) Open jets from pointed ends (Ca, ) = (1.1, 0.575). (Scalebar = 200 m). Inset
on the top-right side shows position ((a),(b),(c)) on the experimental parameter space
of figure 7(c).
investigations were not made in their work. Figure 19 shows the disintegration of the
pointed ends ASPB into regular jets NASB at low Ca (figure 19(a)) and into open jets
NASB at high Ca (figure 19(b)). At long times, the open jets undergo further instability
that leads to disintegration of the open jet. An interesting question in this regard would
be, Are the open jets conical or planar?
Three different open jet breakup mechanisms are possible as shown schematically in
fig 20. In the first mechanism of NASB mode at high capillary numbers, open jet at the
end of the drop can evolve into an open cone which then grows and dispenses small drops
(figure 20(a)). Other (figure 20(b)) possibility is the formation of an open jet leading to
formation of small drops. The third mechanism could be the formation of a flat sheets
parallel to the applied electric field (figure 20(c)). Experimental events in figure 19(c) at
t = 52.0 suggest that the third mechanism is possibly at play. It should be mentioned
though that we never encountered a flat sheet perpendicular to the plane of the 2D image.
Although there is no apparent symmetry/asymmetry which favours the planar jet in the
plane of camera, we cannot rule out the other possibilities with surety. When the sheets
32
Karyappa et. al.
t1
(a)
(b)
<
t2
(c)
Figure 20: Schematic presentation of NASB open jet (oj) breakup possibilities.(a) cone
formation and then formation of small drops, (b) small drop formations and (c) flat sheet
parallel to applied electric field.
form, one can see formation of ligaments on the sheets (see figure 19(b), t = 52.0 ms).
These ligaments strongly indicate that these could be sheets.
4.7. The overlapping region of pointed ends ASPB and open jets NASB
Figure 19 presents the effect of capillary number for = 0.575. While at Ca = 0.25,
one finds pointed ends ASPB leading to regular jets NASB mode, when the capillary
number is increased to 1.1, the overlapping region in the ASPB - NASB (figure 7(d))
combined phase diagram is encountered. Specifically, the pointed end ASPB mode leads
to an open jets NASB mode. Thus the experiments show that although the axisymmetric
deformation is of the pointed ends type, the NASB mode could be either open jets or
regular jets, and is determined by the capillary number. Importantly, it shows that a
Taylor cone could lead to an open jet mode of breakup instead of a regular jet or tip
steaming.
5. Summary
The time-dependent deformation and breakup of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric fluid and subjected to a uniform electric field is studied experimentally and using
analytical theory and numerical calculations. New experimental data are provided for the
steady state deformation of a drop in an uniform electric field in the form of the Taylor
deformation number D vs Ca, the electric capillary number which is a ratio of electric
to capillary stress, and is compared with the existing theoretical and experimental data.
The critical electric capillary number (Cac ), below which a drop undergoes steady state
deformation, is estimated and found to be in reasonable agreement with the literature.
Although the steady state deformation is independent of the viscosity ratio of the
drop and the medium phase , the type of breakup was found to strongly depend upon
and on Ca for Ca > Cac . The three axisymmetric shapes prior to breakup (ASPB)
observed are the formation of lobes at the ends of a drop, the formation of pointed conical
ends and non-pointed ends. The ASPB mode of lobe formation leads to lobes that are
above the Rayleigh critical charge limit and undergo dimple formation on their surface.
Drops with pointed ends are observed for high values of and low values of Ca, and
the angle of the conical pointed ends is found to be much lesser than the Taylor cone
angle of 49.3 . The cone angle is weakly dependent on and almost independent of
33
Ca. An intermediate mode of non-pointed ends is observed between the ASPB modes of
lobes and pointed ends. The ASPB further leads to non-axisymmetric shapes at breakup
(NASB). Typically, the ASPB modes of lobes, pointed and non-pointed ends lead to
NASB modes of breakup of lobes mediated by a dimple formation, termed charged lobe
disintegration, well formed jets that can undergo whipping instability and open jets
respectively. A complete phase diagram for the ASPB and NASB modes is constructed
and a very encouraging agreement is found with Boundary Element calculations when
deformations are axisymmetric.
The study maps out the onset of breakup and its non-axisymmetric aftermath, on a
phase diagram. An uncanny similarity is observed in the non-axisymmetric breakup of
conducting drops observed in this study with that of a liquid emerging out of a highly
charged capillary. The whipping mode is commonly seen in electrospraying experiments.
So is the case with an open jet, although in charged jets, an open cylindrical spray is
observed unlike the conjectured flat spray in the present case.
The study suggests that a caution should be exercised to suggest electro-emulsification
as a means of emulsifying drops. The emulsification is critically dependent upon the
capillary number and the viscosity ratio, although the viscosity ratio does not affect the
steady state deformation. It should be noted that effective emulsification is possible in the
limit of low viscosity ratios and intermediate viscosity ratios. However, at high viscosity
ratios, one might encounter jet formation and whipping, that could lead to operational
difficulties in an electro-emulsifier.
Appendix A
A.1. Problem description
Consider an axisymmetric drop of incompressible Newtonian fluid of radius a, viscosity i
suspended in a dielectric incompressible Newtonian medium (viscosity e ). The interface
separating the two fluids has a constant interfacial tension . We assume that the fluids
have constant electrical properties, namely conductivity i , e and dielectric constant i ,
e for inner and outer liquids, respectively. The present analysis considers an uniform DC
electric field of strength E o . The Reynolds number is considered small enough to ignore
inertial terms in the Navier-Stokes equation. Then, the non-dimensional fluid motion in
the absence of gravity is governed by
ui,e = 0
(A 1)
pi,e + ci,e 2 ui,e = 0,
(A 2)
where subscript i and e indicate the drop fluid and the surrounding medium, respectively.
Let the viscosity ratio be denoted by = i /e (such that ce = 1 and ci = ). The electric
field E can be described in terms of electric potential (E i,e = i,e ). In the absence of
free charge, the electric potential is described by the Laplace equation (2 = 0). The
boundary condition at the interface is given by
i n E i = e n E e
t Ei = t Ee
(A 3)
where n and t are the unit normal into the medium and the tangent vectors at the
interface respectively.
34
Karyappa et. al.

A.2. Boundary Element Formulation
The integral representation for the normal electric field and fluid flow is obtained using
the divergence theorem which converts volume integrals into surface integrals. In the
following equations S represents the drop surface, xs represents a point on the surface
where the velocity is being evaluated and x is the integration variable. All the equations
in this section are written in nondimensional form. The length, stress and time are
nondimensionalized using a, e o Eo2 , and e /(e o Eo2 ), respectively. Eo is the applied
electric field which is also the reference electric field and o is permittivity of free space.
The applied potential is given in cylindrical coordinate system as a = E o z, where z
is direction of axisymmetry. The difference in electrical properties causes Maxwell stresses
at the interface and the electric field at the interface (Baygents et al. 1998) is given by
Z

(x xs )
1
1
n(xs ) E i (x) E e (x) dS = (E i + E e ) ,
(A 4)
E o (x)
3
4 S |x xs |
2
The equation for the unknown electric field at the interface is obtained by using the
boundary conditions A 3:

Z
(x xs )
1 R n(xs )
2R
n(xs ) E o (xs )
E (x)dS, (A 5)
Ene (xs ) =
3 ne
1+R
1+R
2
S |x xs |
where Ene = n E e and R = e /i is conductivity ratio.
Using the Boundary Element method, the velocity at the surface of the drop is written
in the integral form as (Pozrikidis 1992)
Z
Z
1
(1 )
u(xs ) =
f (x) J (x, xs ) dS +
n(x) K(x, xs ) u(x) dS,
4(1 + ) S
4(1 + ) S
(A 6)
where J and K are known kernel functions(Pozrikidis 1992) given by
J (x, xs ) =
(x xs )(x xs )
I
+
|x xs |
|x xs |3
(A 7)
and
(x xs )(x xs )(x xs )
.
|x xs |5
The force at the interface f given by

s n(x)
f (x) = n(x)
E n(x) ,
CaE
K(x, xs ) = 6
(A 8)
(A 9)
where s n(x) is the curvature and CaE = e o Ea2 /.

n E =

1
2
2
(1 QR2 )Ene
(1 Q)Ete
n + 2(1 QR)Ene Ete t .
2
(A 10)
For a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric medium (R 1 and Et 0) the

Maxwell stress is given by
1 2
n(x) E = Ene
n.
(A 11)
2
The half contour of the drop is discretized into N elements (typically 100 elements
were used) using N + 1 nodes points ((r, z)) in cylindrical coordinates and are fitted
with parametrized cubic splines. The unknown variables En and u are assumed to vary
linearly between nodes points. The resulting system of equations are solved using LU
decomposition. The singular integration is carried out analytically by subtracting a small
35
region around singular points. First the normal electric field is determined using equations
A 5 with R = 0.001. Once the normal electric field is known the interface velocity is
computed using equation A 6. Node points are then advanced using explicit Euler method
xt+1
= xts + u(xs )t.
s
Finally, the node points are uniformly distributed after each time iteration.
(A 12)
Electrical Capillary No. [CaE]
0.25
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
1.10
1.20
0.00126
0.0127
0.0306
0.05
0.0886
Viscosity Ratio
0.114
0.138
= e
0.22
0.357
0.575
0.956
36
Karyappa et. al.
Appendix B: Pictorial phase diagram for ASPB modes (Scalebar = 200 m)
Electrical Capillary No. [CaE]
0.25
0.30
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
1.10
1.20
0.00126
0.0127
0.0306
0.05
0.0886
0.138
= e
0.114
Viscosity Ratio
0.22
0.357
0.575
0.956

37
Appendix C: Pictorial phase diagram for NASB modes (Scalebar = 200 m)
38
Karyappa et. al.

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Breakup of a conducting drop in a uniform

A conducting drop suspended in a viscous dielectric and subjected to a uniform DC

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Breakup of a Conducting drop

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System Continuous Drop

Breakup of a Conducting drop

the permittivity of vacuum, E

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Novocontrol Technologies, Germany). The viscosities of the fluids were determined by

Breakup of a Conducting drop

Vizika & Saville (1992)

Ha & Yang (2000)

Eow & Ghadiri (2003)

PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)

PC1 (Eq. Oil)

PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)

PC1 (Eq. Oil)

PC1 (Eq. Oil)

PC1 (Non-Eq. Oil)

Figure 2: (a) Comparison between D vs Ca for a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric

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4. Deformation and breakup of a perfectly conducting drop

Breakup of a Conducting drop

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Figure 4: (a) Evolution of a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric fluid in time

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Open Symbols: BEM

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Breakup of a Conducting drop

Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)

Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)

Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)

Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)

Equilibrium Shapes (Prolate Spheroid)

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Breakup of a Conducting drop

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Tear shaped drop (red arrow)

Lobe (attached to a mother

Tear shaped drop (red arrow)

Breakup of a Conducting drop

BEM (present) (t = 2.25)

BEM (present) (t = 2.05)

drops without electric field (Betel

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0.6 1.0 2.0

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Breakup of a Conducting drop

where s n(x) is the curvature and CaE = e o Ea2 /.

For a conducting drop suspended in a dielectric medium (R 1 and Et 0) the