Charge distribution in turbulent flow of charged liquid—Modeling and experimental validation

Abstract Electric discharges due to the flow of charged organic liquids are a common ignition source for explosions in chemical and process industry. Prevention incidents requires knowledge electric fields above surface liquids. Quantitative methods often estimate based on simplifying assumptions like homogeneous volumetric charge distribution neglect charge. More detailed electrohydrodynamic (EHD) models only available laminar regimes. This work presents model forced turbulent EHD flows dielectric Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations that predicts field gas phase good agreement with our experiments. We observe diminishing accumulation at liquid increasing velocities thereby unify seemingly contradictory previous findings regarding relevance The can efficiently be applied various industrial configurations provide central tool preventing electrostatic hazards.