Linear stability of charged jets in dielectric liquids

A blade-plane configuration in a dielectric liquid is considered. For high electric fields, injection from the blade takes place with ions of the same polarity. The Coulomb force acting on the injected charges excites an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow, called a charged jet. If transport of the charged jet is dominated by convection, i.e., neglecting molecular diffusion and ion drift, and the electric field is assumed constant, the problem is mathematically equivalent to the 2-D thermal plume in the limit of large Prandtl numbers. The stability of this EHD jets is examined using linear theory and the parallel-flow approximation. Neutral stability curves are computed numerically in terms of a nondimensional parameter which is the electrical analog to the Grashof number.<>