DEFORMATION OF NITROGEN BUBBLES IN DC ELECTRIC FIELDS

The deformation of nitrogen bubbles in transformer oil with various DC electric fields was studied experimentally and theoretically. The bubble deformation was visualized by a high-speed digital camera. The major axis of the bubble was elongated along the direction parallel to the applied electric field, with the elongation increasing as the electric field magnitude increased. The electrical Weber number (We) was used to correlate the electric field magnitude and the electric permittivity of the working fluid to the bubble aspect ratio (AR). The experimental results indicate that the bubble aspect ratio increases with increasing We. The total electrical stresses were calculated on an actual bubble shape including the electrostriction stresses.