EHD multi-electrode stimulation of a conducting capillary jet

Equidistant ring electrodes are used to modulate in space and time the hydrodynamic pressure inside a capillary jet. A multielectrode EHD (electrohydrodynamic) device for stimulating a jet of conducting liquid is studied in the particular case of equidistant identical rings around the jet supplied with a pure sinusoidal voltage. A simplified model based on linearized hydrodynamic equations is developed to predict changes of the break-up length as a function of the applied voltage and of the number of electrodes. The validity of this approach is illustrated by comparisons with break-up lengths measured on a water-glycerine jet