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Electrohydrostatics of capillary switches
Author(s) -
Sambath Krishnaraj,
Basaran Osman A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.14367
Subject(s) - phase diagram , bistability , surface tension , electric field , capillary action , radius , bifurcation , hysteresis , phase equilibrium , capillary number , field (mathematics) , mechanics , materials science , phase (matter) , physics , thermodynamics , condensed matter physics , mathematics , nonlinear system , optoelectronics , computer security , pure mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science
A capillary switch is a system of two liquid drops, one sessile and the other pendant, obtained by overfilling a hole of radius R in a plate. When surface tension dominates gravity, the equilibrium shapes of the drops are spherical sections of equal radii. If the combined volume of the top V T and bottom V B drops exceeds 4 π R 3 / 3 , the system has three equilibrium states of which two are stable. This bistability is exploited in applications by toggling the system between its two stable states. Here, we examine the effectiveness of using an electric field for toggling. Bifurcation diagrams are obtained that depict how the system's response varies with applied field strength E, and show loss of stability at turning points and the possibility of hysteresis. A phase diagram in E − ( V T + V B ) space is presented to readily infer when an electric field is an effective means for toggling. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 60: 1451–1459, 2014