Deformations of polarizable fluids subject to stationary electromagnetic fields

The problem of electromagnetic forces in polarizable fluids is discussed and classical formulas for volume force density (Kelvin, Helmholtz) are reviewed. The general problem of hydrostatic equilibrium of a liquid dielectric subject to electric field is formulated. On the basis of this formulation, the displacement of a linear dielectric fluid subject to the field produced by planar electrodes dipped in the fluid is numerically computed by using finite-element methods and an appropriate fixed-point iterative technique.