Instability Modes During Electro-Atomisation for Micro/Nano Particle Fabrication: A Non-Dimensional Approach

Various flow instabilities are present during the electro-atomization process, which influence the nature of the particles generated. There is no universal law for describing the complete electro atomization phenomena. The present study reports the detailed non-dimensional analysis of the problem. Three sets of dependent variables are used during dimensional analysis by Buckingham’s pi theorem, and compared with the variables obtained from the Navier Stokes equation. Flow visualization is used to demonstrate different instability modes. These instability modes are related to the nature and size of the particles. Various fluids having different physical and electrical properties are used. A highly viscous organic polymer like polycaprolactone and a highly conductive inorganic sodium silicate solution are used. Water, ethanol and ethylene glycol are also used for detailed parametric analysis.© 2013 ASME