Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T12:15:43.971Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A nonlinear electrohydrodynamic stability analysis of a thermally stabilized plane layer of dielectric liquid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2006

W. J. Worraker
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol
A. T. Richardson
Affiliation:
Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol

Abstract

The nonlinear stability of a thermally stabilized horizontal plane layer of dielectric liquid subjected to unipolar charge injection at a voltage near the linear instability threshold is investigated using a normal-mode cascade analysis valid for small perturbation amplitudes. In this first analysis, the primary mode is chosen to be a system of parallel rolls whose amplitude varies aperiodically with time. The branching behaviour at the critical voltage is found to reflect the distinction, apparent in the linear instability problem, between an essentially isothermal space-charge instability and an instability dominated by the effects of an ion mobility varying with temperature. The effect of motion on heat and charge transfer through the system is also considered. Furthermore, in certain cases it appears that overstability is the preferred form of linear instability.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1981 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atten, P. & Lacroix, J. C. 1979 Nonlinear hydrodynamic stability of liquids subjected to unipolar injection. J. Méc. 18, 469.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978 Overstable electroconvective instabilities. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 31, 381.Google Scholar
Felici, N. 1969 Phénomènes hydro et aérodynamiques dans la conduction des diélectriques fluides. Rev. Gen. de l’Électricité 78, 717.Google Scholar
Gross, M. J. & Porter, J. E. 1966 Electrically induced convection in dielectric liquids. Nature 212, 1343.Google Scholar
Ince, E. L. 1927 Ordinary Differential Equations. Longmans.
Joseph, D. D. 1976 Stability of Fluid Motions I, Tracts in Natural Philosophy, vol. 27. Springer.
Lacroix, J. C. 1976 Instabilités hydrodynamiques et électroconvection lors d'injection d'ions dans les liquides isolants isotropes, Thèse Doct. Sci. Phys., Université Scientifique et Medicale de Grenoble, France.
Lacroix, J. C., Atten, P. & Hopfinger, E. J. 1975 Electroconvection in a dielectric liquid layer subjected to unipolar injection. J. Fluid Mech. 69, 539.Google Scholar
Milne, R. D. 1980 Applied Functional Analysis, p. 254. Pitman.
Palm, E. 1975 Nonlinear thermal convection. Ann. Rev. Fluid Mech. 7, 39.Google Scholar
Richardson, A. T. 1980 The linear instability of a dielectric liquid contained in a cylindrical annulus and subjected to unipolar charge injection. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 33, 277.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. H. 1969 Electrohydrodynamic convection. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 22, 211.Google Scholar
Segel, L. A. 1965 The structure of nonlinear cellular solutions to the Boussinesq equations. J. Fluid Mech. 21, 345.Google Scholar
Segel, L. A. 1966 Nonlinear hydrodynamic stability theory and its applications to thermal convection and curved flows. In Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Variational Techniques and Stability (ed. R. J. Donnelly, R. Herman & I. Prigogine), p. 165. University of Chicago Press.
Takashima, M. & Aldridge, K. D. 1976 The stability of a horizontal layer of dielectric fluid under the simultaneous action of a vertical D.C. electric field and a vertical temperature gradient. Quart. J. Mech. Appl. Math. 29, 71.Google Scholar
Turnbull, R. J. 1968a Electroconvective instability with a stabilising temperature gradient. I. Theory. Phys. Fluids 11, 2588.Google Scholar
Turnbull, R. J. 1968b Electroconvective instability with a stabilising temperature gradient. II. Experimental results. Phys. Fluids 11, 2597.Google Scholar
Worraker, W. J. & Richardson, A. T. 1979 The effect of temperature-induced variations in charge carrier mobility on a stationary electrohydrodynamic instability. J. Fluid Mech. 93, 29.Google Scholar