Electrohydrodynamic instabilities and orientation of dielectric ellipsoids in low-conducting fluids

We study the dynamics of an ellipsoidal particle in a weakly conducting dielectric liquid when submitted to a dc electric field. At low field intensities, the particle long axis is aligned in the field direction. When the field strength is increased, we show that, depending on the initial orientation of the particle, there exist two stable orientations: the one with the long axis parallel to the field direction remains possible while a spinning state with the long axis perpendicular to the field appears. This last striking orientation is due to the finite Maxwell-Wagner polarization relaxation time. For sufficiently high field intensities, each state loses its stability and the particle dynamics becomes chaotic. Those conclusions from the theoretical model are supported by experimental observations.