Numerical Analysis of Electroconvection Phenomena in Cross-flow

Electroconvective phenomena in the presence of cross-flow between two parallel electrodes is investigated in a numerical study. The two-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann Method with fast Poisson solver solves for the spatiotemporal distribution of flow field, electric field, and charge density. Couette and Poiseuille cross-flows are applied to the solutions with electroconvective vortices. Increasing cross-flow velocity deforms the vortices and eventually suppresses them when threshold values of shear stress are reached. This behavior is parameterized by a non-dimensional parameter, Y, formulated as the ratio of the electrical force to the viscous force in the Navier-Stokes Equations. For high values of Y, the electric force dominates the flow, while for Y values below the critical threshold, the electric force influence on the flow is negligible and the flow is dominated by the shear.