Water droplets on a hydrophobic insulator surface under high voltages: A thermal perspective

The thermal characteristics in the interaction process between water droplets on a hydrophobic insulator surface under high direct current voltages have been investigated with the infrared thermography. Discharge inception under a sufficiently high electric field resulted in the temperature rise between droplets and the formation of a liquid channel. The channel was transient for low conductivity droplets followed by their coalescence while stable for highly conductive ones. Asymmetric temperature distributions in the associated droplets appeared, and localized drying in the low conductivity droplet near the higher potential electrode initiated intermittent discharge. Mechanisms of these experimental phenomena have been discussed. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4754689]