Soap bubbles deformation in non-uniform electric field and corona discharge

The paper presents the process of soap bubble development in a strong and highly non-uniform electric field obtained using a needle-plate electrode configuration. Bubbles ca. 43 mm in diameter were investigated in a point-plane electrode system with a 30 mm air gap and potential difference up to 14 kV The work includes a qualitative description of the observed phenomena as well as their quantitative evaluation. It was found that the polarity of the applied voltage has a significant effect on the behavior of the bubble in such electrode configu-ration. It was observed that changes in bubble height and width for positively charged bubbles are more than two times greater than for negatively-charged ones. The formation of a dimple at the top of the bubble caused by the ionic wind was also observed.