Force of attraction between two conducting droplets in electric field

Abstract

Distortion of two identical droplets aligned with the external uniform electric field is investigated in this paper. It is assumed that both droplets are perfectly conducting and placed in an ideal dielectric medium. The equation of the droplet distortion is solved using the finite difference method, while the electric field distribution for a given droplet shape is predicted by means of the boundary element method. The droplet distortion is calculated in terms of two nondimensional numbers and the distance between both droplets. The force of mutual attraction between droplets is also determined.