We study the effect of a uniform DC electric field on the dynamics of unpinned weakly-conducting liquid bridges. With increasing field strength, the contact line undergoes instability, exhibiting an undulating flower-like shape, followed by the emergence of a travelling wave in the azimuthal direction, revealing a rich spectrum of interesting behaviors. Analysis of the stability of pinned bridges under electric fields began since the work of Gonzalez et. al (1989) and have been studied extensively since the work of Burcham and Saville (2000). Here we dive into the host of interesting behavior when we 'un-pin' them.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Any reuse must credit the author(s) and provide a link back to this page.