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Updated: Apr 17, 2026

The Preparation of Electrohydrodynamic Bridges from Polar Dielectric Liquids
Published on: September 30, 2014
Detection of a dynamic cone-shaped meniscus on the surface of fluids in electric fields
Ezinwa O Elele1, Yueyang Shen1, Donald R Pettit2
1New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey 07102, USA.
Abstract:
A cone-shaped meniscus of electrified fluids, often called a Taylor cone, is observed in rain drops and lightning and employed in various physical instruments and experimental techniques, but the way it evolves from a rounded shape to a cone is a long-standing puzzle. Earth's gravity and microgravity measurements on the meniscus whose height is just shy of droplet ejection reveal that field-driven cusp evolution exhibits a universal self-similarity insensitive to the forcing field and scaled by the fluid surface tension and density. Our work paves the way for dynamic control of field-driven phenomena in fluids.
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