The effect of an electric field on the expansion and collapse of bubbles in liquid dielectrics

The effect of an electric field on the expansion and collapse of ionized bubbles in insulating fluids has been studied. The bubbles are generated by an electrical discharge in an auxilliary gap, recessed into one of a pair of parallel electrodes of a liquid-filled cell; the bubbles are recorded by a flash-illuminated shadowgraph camera. A field of 150 kV/cm has a small effect on the bubble expansion, but has a large effect on bubble collapse.