EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF ELECTROSTATIC DISPERSION OF NONCONDUCTIVE FLUIDS INTO CONDUCTIVE FLUIDS

Electrostatic dispersion has been used extensively in many fields incl uding electrostatic printing, paint spraying, crop spraying, and chemi cal processing. Most of the applications reported to date, however, ar e limited to spraying fluids of high electrical conductivity into flui ds of lower electrical conductivity. Recent attempts on electrostatic spraying of nonconductive fluids into conductive fluids have shown pro mising results. Here, we report an experimental investigation of the i nfluence of physical properties of the fluids, nozzle geometry, and op erating conditions on the spraying behavior of nonconductive fluids in to conductive fluids. Our results show that the experiments are consis tent with the theory of electrohydrodynamics. Also, the results provid ed in this paper can lead to effecive nozzle design for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid dispersions for various applications.