Two-dimensional problems of electrohydrostatic stability

Abstract
The main intention of this paper is to study the breakdown of equilibrium of a conducting fluid surface such as a membrane when placed in the field of a charged cylindrical conductor. The work is presented in four sections. The first section outlines an approximate theory relevant when the gap between the cylinder and surface is small in comparison with the radius of the cylinder. In the second section, this theory is applied to a number of related problems notably the stability of conducting fluid filaments suspended on parallel wires. In the third section we introduce an extension of the asymptotic analysis of the preceding sections which removes the restriction of the small gap requirement and may be applied to problems of section two which possess symmetry about a centre plane. In the final section, we present a global analysis of the stability of a membrane in the field of a cylindrical conductor. Here the problem is studied in general terms without restrictions on geometrical parameters, and the resulting general equations determining the equilibrium configuration of the membrane are solved numerically.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: