Deformation and division of sulphur hexafluoride vapour bubbles in a strong electric field

The shadow method of visualization was used to study sulfur hexafluoride vapor bubbles between two spherical electrodes with radius of 25 mm and between two conical (with a top angle of 45°) electrodes made from stainless steel. It was established that vapor bubbles were being formed on the surface of both electrodes and were moving in liquid sulfur hexafluoride against the gradient of electric field energy density with a speed which is proportional to the magnitude of this gradient. The high speed of a great number of the smallest vapor bubbles in electric fields with large gradients makes it necessary to employ a sufficiently powerful light source with a short flash time (less than 1 ns) for bubble shape visualization and also makes it necessary to develop a diagnostic technique for the definition of vapor bubbles, oriented by the electric field, by dispersed light