Charge distribution in turbulent flow of charged liquid — Modeling and experimental validation

Electric discharges due to the flow of charged organic liquids are a common ignition source for explosions in the chemical and process industry. Prevention of incidents requires knowledge of electric fields above the surface of charged liquids. Quantitative methods often estimate electric fields based on simplifying assumptions like homogeneous volumetric charge distribution and neglect of surface charge. More detailed electrohydrodynamic (EHD) models are only available for laminar flow regimes. This work presents a model for forced turbulent EHD flows of dielectric liquids based on Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations that predicts the electric field in the gas phase in good agreement with our experiments. We observe diminishing surface charge accumulation at the liquid surface with increasing flow velocities and thereby unify seemingly contradictory previous findings regarding the relevance of surface charge. The model can efficiently be applied to various industrial flow configurations and provide a central tool in preventing electrostatic hazards.