Weakly nonlinear theories in electrohydrodynamics

Overall, it seems that further investigation and fine-tuning of the numerical program would be necessary to achieve closer agreement between the two solutions.
  • #1
hunt_mat
Homework Helper
1,782
32
I derived an equation describing the free surface of an electrified fluid. I am currently seeking traveling wave solutions for this problem, the equation I am looking at is [tex](1-F) f+\frac{1}{90}h^{4}f^{(4)}+\frac{3}{4h}f^{2}-\frac{1}{2}\Bigg( B-\frac{1}{3}\Bigg) hf''+\frac{Ah}{2}\mathcal{H}(f')+\frac{p}{2\rho g}=0[/tex]

The [tex]\mathcal{H}[/tex] term is the Hilbert transform, [tex]F,h,B,\rho ,g[/tex] are constants

I have written a numerical program which solves the above equation in MATLAB and it seems to give the sort of solution I am looking for. In order to text this result, if I ignore the nonlinear term, I can derive an analytical solution by the use of Fourier transforms, so if I write:

[tex]f=\int_{\mathbb{R}}\alpha (k)e^{ikx}dk,\quad p=\int_{\mathbb{R}}\beta (k)e^{ikx}dk[/tex].

I can get the solution

[tex]\alpha (k)=-\frac{\beta (k)}{2\rho g}\bigg[ 1-\frac{c}{c_{0}}+\frac{h^{4}k^{4}}{90}+\frac{1}{2}\Bigg( B-\frac{1}{3}\Bigg) h^{2}k^{2}-\frac{Ah|k|}{2}\Bigg]^{-1}[/tex]

If I compare the above solution to my numerical solution with the nonlinear term ignored, they should, in theory, get the same answer. They don't however. Can anyone see why this should be? The MATLAB program I use is:

L=201; %Defines the number of steps, must always be an integer
x=linspace(-6,6,L); %Defines x
p=exp(-x.^2); %The pressure distribution
f=zeros(1,L); %Initial guess for f is f=0;
Q=0.1; %This the the ratio c/c_0
%The way forward is to use Newton's method to reduce the equation down to a linear algebra problem and then use Octave
%to solve the linear algrbra problem.

%The first step is to compute the Jacobian matrix
%Do this by diferencing between to close points and dividing through by that difference
df=10^-10;
J=zeros(L,L); %This will be the Jacobian.
it=3; %This will be the number of iterations required to compute the solution
X=zeros(L,1);
for k=1:it
for i=1:L
for j=1:L
T=zeros(1,L); %Set all the entries to zero again
T(i)=df;
J(i,j)=(g(x,f+T,p,Q,j)-g(x,f,p,Q,j))/df; %Calculates the (i,j)th element of the Jacobian
end
end

for m=1:L
X(m)=-g(x,f,p,Q,m);
end

%Now solve the system of equations
sol=J\X;
%sol=inv(J)*X;
f=f+sol';

end

%Now plot the solution!
plot(x,f);
xlabel('x');
ylabel('f(x-ct)');

The function g is:

function r=g(x,f,p,Q,i)
h=1;
B=0.2;
E_b=0.1;
g=9.8065;
rho=1;
a_1=1-Q;
a_2=h^4/90;
a_3=0.75/h;
a_4=-0.5*(B-1/3)*h^2;
a_5=0.5*E_b*h;
a_6=1/(2*g*rho);
dx=x(2)-x(1);
f_ghost=[0 0 f 0 0]; %Add in the ghost cells for f
N=length(x); %Prepare for the Hilbert transform
x_half=zeros(1,N-1);
f_half=zeros(1,N-1);
for k=1:N-1
x_half(k)=0.5*(x(k)+x(k+1));
f_half(k)=0.5*(f(k)+f(k+1));
end
grad=gradient(f_half,dx);
hilbert=trapz(x_half,grad./(x_half-x(i)));
%hilbert=0; %Start the Hilbert transform at zero
%for k=2:N-1
%hilbert=hilbert+(f(k+1)-f(k))/(0.5*(x(k+1)+x(k))-x(i));
%end
%Compute the Hilbert transform

%Now comes the formulae for the finite differencing part of the algorithm.
b_1=a_1*f_ghost(i+2);
b_2=(a_2/dx^4)*(f_ghost(i+4)-4*f_ghost(i+3)+6*f_ghost(i+2)-4*f_ghost(i+1)+f_ghost(i)); %Fourth order derivative
b_3=0; %a_3*f_ghost(i+2)^2; %nonlinear term
b_4=(a_4/dx^2)*(f_ghost(i+3)-2*f_ghost(i+2)+f_ghost(i+1)); %Second order derivative
b_5=a_5*hilbert; %Hilbert transform term
b_6=a_6*p(i); %Pressure term
r=b_1+b_2+b_3+b_4+b_5+b_6;

Any idea anyone?
Mat
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #2
hematically speaking, the analytical solution and the numerical solution should be the same because the nonlinear term is ignored. The difference between these two solutions could be due to the fact that the numerical solution is using a finite step size and is therefore not able to capture the full complexity of the behavior of the system. Alternatively, it could be due to errors in the numerical implementation of the Hilbert transform, or in the numerical solution of the linear algebra problem.
 

1. What is electrohydrodynamics?

Electrohydrodynamics is a branch of physics that studies the interaction between electric fields and fluid flow. It combines principles from electromagnetism and fluid dynamics to understand the behavior of fluids in the presence of electric fields.

2. How do weakly nonlinear theories differ from linear theories in electrohydrodynamics?

In linear theories, the response of a fluid to an electric field is directly proportional to the strength of the field. However, in weakly nonlinear theories, the relationship between the electric field and fluid response is not directly proportional and can involve higher order terms. This allows for a more accurate description of complex fluid behavior.

3. What are some applications of weakly nonlinear theories in electrohydrodynamics?

Weakly nonlinear theories have been used to study a variety of phenomena, including electroconvection, electrophoresis, and electrokinetics. They are also important in understanding the behavior of charged particles in colloidal suspensions and the dynamics of liquid crystal systems.

4. How are weakly nonlinear theories in electrohydrodynamics tested and validated?

Weakly nonlinear theories are often tested and validated through experiments that measure the response of fluids to electric fields. These experiments can also be compared to numerical simulations using the equations derived from the theories.

5. What are the limitations of weakly nonlinear theories in electrohydrodynamics?

While weakly nonlinear theories provide a more accurate description of fluid behavior in the presence of electric fields, they are limited in their ability to fully capture all aspects of the system. They also require more complex mathematical calculations compared to linear theories, making them more difficult to apply in some cases.

Similar threads

  • Differential Equations
Replies
3
Views
368
  • Differential Equations
Replies
3
Views
2K
  • Differential Equations
Replies
1
Views
749
  • Differential Equations
Replies
3
Views
1K
  • Differential Equations
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • Differential Equations
Replies
1
Views
664
  • Differential Equations
Replies
1
Views
769
Replies
2
Views
1K
  • Differential Equations
Replies
3
Views
1K
Replies
11
Views
482
Back
Top