Effect of an electric field on a Leidenfrost droplet

Franck Celestini (1) , Geoffroy Kirstetter (1)

1 LPMC - Laboratoire de physique de la matière condensée

We experimentally investigate the effect of an electric field applied between a Leidenfrost droplet and the heated substrate on which it is levitating. We quantify the electro-Leidenfrost effect by imaging the interference fringes between the liquid-vapour and vapour-substrate interfaces. The increase of the voltage induces a decrease of the vapour layer thickness. Above a certain critical voltage the Leidenfrost effect is suppressed and the drop starts boiling. Our study characterizes this way to control and/or to avoid the Leidenfrost effect that is undesirable in many domains such as metallurgy or nuclear reactor safety.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Franck Celestini, Geoffroy Kirstetter. Effect of an electric field on a Leidenfrost droplet. Soft Matter, 2012, 8 (22), pp.5992. ⟨10.1039/C2SM25656H⟩. ⟨hal-00698584⟩