CAPILLARY OSCILLATIONS AND STABILITY OF A CHARGED, VISCOUS DROP IN A VISCOUS DIELECTRIC MEDIUM

The scalarization method is used to obtain a dispersion relation for c apillary oscillations of a charged, conducting drop in a viscous, diel ectric medium. It is found that the instability growth rate of the cha rged interface depends substantially on the viscosity and density of t he surrounding medium, dropping rapidly as they are increased. In the subcritical regime the influence of the viscosity and density of both media leads to a nonmonotonic dependence of the damping rate of the ca pillary motions of the liquid on the viscosity or density of the exter nal medium for a fixed value of the viscosity or density of the intern al medium. The falloff of the frequencies of the capillary motions wit h growth of the viscosity or density of the external medium is monoton ic in this case. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7842(9 8)00109-3].