Numerical simulation of water droplets in presence of strong electric-fields

This paper presents the numerical simulation of water droplets in presence of strong electric fields. Under these conditions, water droplets change shape and these deformations can trigger electrostatic discharges. Such phenomena applied to a sample water droplet can be seen as a transient electrically and fluid mechanically coupled problem where the solution of the electrical problem determines the electric force densities deforming the droplet and where the solution of the fluid mechanical problem determines the new shape of the droplet which in turn changes the electric force densities. In this work, we present an approach based on the finite element method to solve the transient electrical problem with moving geometry in 3D.