Stability and breakup of liquid jets: Effect of slight gaseous crossflows and electric fields

Instability and breakup of a liquid jet under the influence of a gaseous crossflow in the presence of an electric field is investigated. A dispersion relation for disturbances on the jet surface is derived for the combined effects based on pioneer linear stability analysis for low speed limits. Effects of Weber, Bond and Ohnesorge numbers on the growth rate of disturbances are studied. The theoretical analysis developed for breakup length is used for comparisons with experimentally obtained breakup lengths. Measured breakup lengths were predicted satisfactorily by the linear theory in the region of low crossflow velocities (0-4 m/s) and electric field intensities (0-3×105 V/m).