Experimental Investigation of Electrostatic Dispersion of Nonconductive Fluids into Conductive Fluids

Electrostatic dispersion has been used extensively in many fields including electrostatic printing, paint spraying, crop spraying, and chemical processing. Most of the applications reported to date, however, are limited to spraying fluids of high electrical conductivity into fluids of lower electrical conductivity. Recent attempts on electrostatic spraying of nonconductive fluids into conductive fluids have shown promising results. Here, we report an experimental investigation of the influence of physical properties of the fluids, nozzle geometry, and operating conditions on the spraying behavior of nonconductive fluids into conductive fluids. Our results show that the experiments are consistent with the theory of electrohydrodynamics. Also, the results provided in this paper can lead to effective nozzle design for gas-liquid and liquid-liquid dispersions for various applications.