Electroconvective cavity flows produced by a cylinder/plane electrode geometry

Abstract

The presented work is an experimental study on electroconvective cavity flows produced by a cylinder- plane electrode geometry. Flows are recorded by the used of the wellknown particle image velocimetry technique. The main objective of this work is to develop flow control methods in order to enhance the heat transfer and the mixing efficiency in fluidic and microfluidic systems. In this study, the electrohydrodynamic flow is obtained by applying a dc voltage to a set of electrodes immersed in a working liquid. It is shown that the produced velocity fields strongly depend on apply voltage. An analysis of the velocity field is then realized to display electric forces. The current is also measured with an oscilloscope using a shunt resistor connected to the ground electrode.