Experimental study of the flow focusing under an electric field

The instability characteristics of the cone and theelectrified jet coupling the electric and pneumatic forces have beeninvestigated experimentally by applying an electric field in the region ofthe coaxial liquid-gas jet of flow focusing. The experiments were carriedout on a well-designed flow focusing device. The effects of the mainlycontrollable parameters including the external electric voltage, the gaspressure drop and the liquid flow rate on the flow focusing process wereanalyzed. The flow modes of the cone, including the cone-shaky mode, thecone-steady mode and the transition between them, were obtained. The shapesand transitions of the jet flow modes including the dripping mode, theaxisymmetric mode, the coexisting mode and the non-axisymmetric mode werealso observed, and the effects of the electric field on the jet dimensionswere further performed quantitatively. The results indicate that thiscombining method is capable of stabilizing the cone, enhancing theatomization and reducing the size of the production compared with the singleflow focusing. As a result, the method has remarkable applications in fieldsof science and technology, and would be valuable in engineering practice.