Investigations on charging estimation of water droplet on composite insulating surface in an electric field

¹ Ecole Centrale de Lyon, AMPERE Laboratory, CNRS UMR 5005, 36 avenue Guy de Collongue, 69134 Ecully, France
² Faculty of Industrial Engineering, University of Douala, BP 2701 Douala, Cameroon
³ Faculty of Sciences, University of Douala, BP 24157 Douala, Cameroon

^a e-mail: j_ndoumbe@fgi-ud.org

Received: 8 October 2014
Revised: 15 December 2014
Accepted: 6 February 2015
Published online: 18 March 2015

Abstract

This paper deals with experimental and analytical investigations of the electric charge of water droplets deposited on hydrophobic insulating (silicon rubber) surface under non-uniform DC high voltage electric field. Accordingly, the effects of electrodes geometry, droplets size and water droplet conductivity are analyzed. Basically, a water droplet was kept stationary on the insulating surface and numerical integration of the current is used to estimate the electric charge on the droplet. The results show that the charge accumulated on the droplet is dependent on multiple factors such as the ionic mobility in the solution, the droplet size and the electrode geometry. It also showed that the charging properties for the insulating surface are also important as the hydrophobic properties.