Electrocapillary flow in Melcher – Taylor experimental setup

Electrocapillary two-phase flow in a confined cavity is studied. The flow configuration corresponds to a classical experiment of Melcher and Taylor. It is shown that the computed streamlines of the flow of the heavier liquid (corn oil) qualitatively represents the corresponding experimental image. With the increase of electrocapillary forcing, the flow pattern changes, so that the main circulation localizes near boundary with a larger electric potential. It is shown that numerical results satisfy the Lippmann equation connecting electrically induced surface tension with non-uniform surface electric potential.