Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of subcritical electrohydrodynamic flow subject to strong unipolar injection

Abstract

We analyse in detail the weakly nonlinear stability of electrohydrodynamic (EHD) flow of insulating fluids subject to strong unipolar injection, with and without cross-flow. We first consider the hydrostatic electroconvetion induced by a Coulomb force confined between two infinite flat electrodes, taking into account the charge diffusion effect. The effects of various non-dimensionalized parameters are examined in order to depict in detail and to understand better the subcritical bifurcation of hydrostatic electroconvetion. In addition, electrohydrodynamics with low- or high-$Re$cross-flow is also considered for investigating the combined effect of inertia and the electric field. It is found that the base cross-flow is modified by the electric effect and that, even when the inertia is dominating, the electric field can still strengthen effectively the subcritical characteristics of canonical channel flow. In this process, however, the electric field does not contribute directly to the subcriticality of the resultant flow and the intensified subcritical feature of such flow is thus entirely due to the modified hydrodynamic field as a result of the imposed electric field. This finding might be important for flow control strategies involving an electric field. Theoretically, the above results are obtained from a multiple-scale expansion method, which gives rise to the Ginzburg–Landau equation governing the amplitude of the first-order perturbation. The conclusions are deduced by probing the changes of value of the coefficients in this equation. In particular, the sign of the first Landau coefficient indicates the type of bifurcation, being subcritical or supercritical. Moreover, as a quintic-order Ginzburg–Landau equation is derived, the effects of higher-order nonlinear terms in EHD flow are also discussed.