Electrohydrodynamic and Magnetohydrodynamic Surface Waves and Instabilities

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Abstract
Low-frequency dynamics of a plane fluid interface stressed by tangential or perpendicular electric or magnetic fields is studied emphasizing the duality of the magnetic and electric cases. Both configurations are shown to be controlled by an effective Alfvén velocity for the magnetic cases, and by an electrohydrodynamic dual to this velocity for the electric cases. A wavelength and threshold for instability are predicted for a surface stressed by a perpendicular field, and correlated with experimental results. This makes possible a critical experiment to determine the nature of interfacial electrostriction in dielectrics. A dielectric interface stressed by a tangential electric field supports incompressible electrohydrodynamic transverse waves that propagate along the lines of electric field intensity at a velocity strongly influenced by interfacial electrostriction. Experimental results indicate the existence of such waves.

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