The floating water bridge

Fuchs, Elmar; Woisetschläger, Jakob; Gatterer, Karl; Maier, Eugen; Pečnik, René; Holler, Gert; Eisenkölbl, Helmut

doi:10.1088/0022-3727/40/19/052

Cited by 124 publications

(126 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Both effects are connected and different experiments will be carried out to test them. The first set of experiments are performed in the "beakers configuration" [9] in order to characterize the floating water bridge experiment in terms of Electrohydrodynamic dimensionless numbers, and the second will be done in the so called "axisymmetric configuration", in which both aspects of the stability of the water bridge will be analyzed: the stability against capillary forces and the stability against gravity. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building water bridges in air: Electrohydrodynamics of the floating water bridge

Marin

Lohse

2010

Physics of Fluids

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The interaction of electrical fields and liquids can lead to phenomena that defies intuition. Some famous examples can be found in Electrohydrodynamics as Taylor cones, whipping jets or noncoalescing drops. A less famous example is the Floating Water Bridge: a slender thread of water held between two glass beakers in which a high voltage difference is applied. Surprisingly, the water bridge defies gravity even when the beakers are separated at distances up to 2 cm. In the presentation, experimental measurements and simple models are proposed and discussed for the stability of the bridge and the source of the flow, revealing an important role of polarization forces on the stability of the water bridge. On the other hand, the observed flow can only be explained due to the non negligible free charge present in the surface. In this sense, the Floating Water Bridge can be considered as an extreme case of a leaky dielectric liquid (

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building water bridges in air: Electrohydrodynamics of the floating water bridge

Marin

Lohse

2010

Physics of Fluids

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“…Recent observations [1,2,3] have been made of water bridges stretched across supports which are maintained at large voltage differences. A water bridge is a "flexible cable" made up of pure deionized water which has an electric field E in virtue of an applied voltage across the supports at the ends of the fluid cable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory of the Maxwell pressure tensor and the tension in a water bridge

et al. 2009

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A water bridge refers to an experimental "flexible cable" made up of pure deionized water which can hang across two supports maintained with a sufficiently large voltage difference. The resulting electric fields within the deionized water flexible cable, maintain a tension which sustains the water against the downward force of gravity. A detailed calculation of the water bridge tension will be provided in terms of the Maxwell pressure tensor in a dielectric fluid medium. General properties of the dielectric liquid pressure tensor are discussed along with unusual features of dielectric fluid Bernoulli flows in an electric field. Analogies between dielectric fluid Bernoulli flows in strong electric fields and quantum Bernoulli flows in superfluids are explored.

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“…3 More generally, the deformation of liquid/air or liquid/liquid interfaces after the application of an external electric field is usually indicated as electrowetting. 4 Recent phenomenological studies [5][6][7][8][9] have drawn attention to an appealing effect, observed more than one century ago: 10 an intense electric field can coax water into leaping a tenths of millimeters gap between two glass beakers, forming a floating bridge. The phenomenon has been ascribed to unknown properties of water.…”

Section: Istituto Per I Processi Chimico-fisici Cnr Viale Ferdinandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the H-bonding connectivity is a sufficient condition then the phenomenon should be observed in a number of different fluids too. Preliminarily, we reproduced the experiment following the usual procedure 5 ͑see Fig. 1, left͒ with double distilled and de-ionized water ͑resistivity of about 10 M⍀ / cm͒.…”

Section: Istituto Per I Processi Chimico-fisici Cnr Viale Ferdinandmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…19 In this context it should have to be remarked that all water-bridge experiments starts as a capillary water channel which stabilizes and increases in diameter when the applied voltage exceeds a certain value. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Together with the formation of the capillary bridge a significant mass flow is set up from the anode to the cathode beaker. After stabilization, a current is observed in both directions suggesting for a layered structure of the bridge whose establishment is not unambiguously confirmed or refused.…”

Section: Istituto Per I Processi Chimico-fisici Cnr Viale Ferdinandmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Communication: An extended model of liquid bridging

Saija

Aliotta

Fontanella

et al. 2010

The Journal of Chemical Physics

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Recent phenomenological studies have drawn attention to an appealing effect, observed for the first time in 1893, today known as water-bridge. The phenomenon has been ascribed to unknown properties of water. We report some experimental results showing that, contrary to a widely common belief, the phenomenon is not to be related with water neither with a property of hydrogen bonded networks. Using a very simple model, we show that the liquid bridge phenomenon is originated by electrostatic effects and can be reproduced in any dense fluid with no respect of its peculiar molecular properties. This basic approach is able to reproduce many of the experimentally observed features of the bridge formation. In perspective of future investigations, the possible phenomena responsible of the bridge stability, after its formation, are briefly discussed.

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The floating water bridge

Cited by 124 publications

References 9 publications

Building water bridges in air: Electrohydrodynamics of the floating water bridge

Building water bridges in air: Electrohydrodynamics of the floating water bridge

Theory of the Maxwell pressure tensor and the tension in a water bridge

Communication: An extended model of liquid bridging

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