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The mass loss of water drops falling in electric fields
Author(s) -
Latham J.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49709138712
Subject(s) - electric field , drop (telecommunication) , falling (accident) , radius , materials science , environmental science , physics , electrical engineering , medicine , computer security , environmental health , quantum mechanics , computer science , engineering
Experiments showed that water drops of radius 0.191 cm falling for 0.2 seconds through a horizontal electric field were disrupted and lost mass if the field strength exceeded 8,500 V cm −1 . As the field strength was increased above this critical value the mass loss increased rapidly and in a field of 11,500 V cm −1 the drop lost about 35 per cent of its mass; for higher values of field strength the mass loss increased more slowly. Experiments also showed that the magnitude of the mass loss was dependent upon the time of exposure of the drop to the field. For exposure times less than about 2 × 10 −2 sec drops falling in a field of 11,250 V cm −1 lost no mass but as the exposure time was increased above this value the mass loss increased rapidly and for an exposure time of about 0.1 sec the mass loss was 25 per cent; for longer exposure times the mass loss increased more slowly. An assessment is made of the importance of this disruption process in modifying the concentration and size distribution of raindrops and cloud droplets inside a thundercloud.