Breakup of large water droplets by electric fields

The results are presented of an experimental study of the processes that lead to the breakup of a large water droplet doped with alcohol to approach the density of oil and immersed in an oil dielectric medium to which a strong electric field is applied. The study, which was carried out by means of photography, showed that the deformation of the droplets prior to breakup involves distinct characteristic stages of importance to the induction charging and to the ultimate charge separation phenomena. The experimental results show the conditions and the phenomena that lead to the breakup of an initially uncharged water droplet when subjected to an electric field that is not perfectly uniform and in a gravity field