Related papers: Shear-induced electrical changes in the base of th…
Layer clouds are abundant in the Earth's atmosphere. Such clouds do not become sufficiently strongly charged to generate lightning, but they show weak charging along the upper and lower cloud boundaries where there is a conductivity…
The role of droplet charge in stratiform clouds is one of the least well understood areas in cloud microphysics and is thought to affect cloud radiative and precipitation processes. Layer clouds cover a large proportion of the Earth's…
The paper presents a model of electric charge generation in precipitating clouds due to breaking of large particles in low melting layer. The Earth's electric field polarises the droplets and they break into small negatively charged and…
In present models cloud based lightning forms as a consequence of the earth's gravitational and/or electromagnetic fields. Our simplified field-free model probes the random aggregation of a neutral ensemble consisting of a random…
In clouds of suspended particles (grains, droplets, spheres, crystals, etc.), collisions electrify the particles and the clouds, producing large electric potential differences over large scales. This is seen most spectacularly in the…
Astrophysical current layers, e.g., in pulsar winds, can be electrically charged, while the plasma is charge-symmetric, $e^\pm$. Using PIC simulations, we investigate dynamics and plasmoid formation (tearing instability) in charged…
Dust particles immersed in a plasma environment become charged through the collection of electrons and ions at random times, causing the dust charge to fluctuate about an equilibrium value. Small grains (with radii less than 1 \mum) or…
The finding of droplet-based electricity generator (DEG), based on the moving boundary of electrical double layer, has triggered great research enthusiasm, and a breakthrough in instantaneous electric power density was achieved recently.…
Ions in ionic liquids and concentrated electrolytes reside in a crowded, strongly-interacting environment, leading to the formation of discrete layers of charges at interfaces. Here, we propose a continuum theory that captures the…
Grains in desert sandstorms spontaneously generate strong electrical charges; likewise volcanic dust plumes produce spectacular lightning displays. Charged particle clouds also cause devastating explosions in food, drug and coal processing…
Sheared concentrated colloids with short range polymer coats are examined via simulations. Distributions of force are found to be sums of exponentials. The 'hydrodynamic clustering' underlying the shear thickening effect is shown, in this…
Extensive aircraft cloud physical observations made in more than 2000 tropical cumulus clouds indicated new observational evidence viz., (1) horizontal structure of the air flow inside the cloud has consistent variations with successive…
We present a theory of the hydrodynamic forces in the drainage flow of an electrolyte between a sphere and a plane with charged surfaces. Our theory considers a thin electrolyte film which is at all times in local equilibrium across its…
Interfacial energy dissipation during stick-slip motion of a liquid drop on a non-conductive polymer substrate is shown to lead to an irreversible increase in electrical charge. This previously unobserved phenomenon occurs during surface…
Clouds cast shadows on the surface and locally enhance solar irradiance by absorbing and scattering sunlight, resulting in fast and large solar irradiance fluctuations on the surface. Typical spatiotemporal scales and driving mechanisms of…
A simplified model has previously described the inductive charging of colliding identical grains in the presence of an external electric field. Here we extend that model by including heterogeneous surface charge distributions, grain…
A model of shear thickening in dense suspensions of Brownian soft sphere colloidal particles is established. It suggests that shear thickening in soft sphere suspensions can be interpreted as a shear induced phase transition. Based on a…
The coupled mechanics of fluid-filled granular media controls the behavior of many natural systems such as saturated soils, fault gouge, and landslides. The grain motion and the fluid pressure influence each other: It is well established…
We report the observation in the direct space of the transport of a few thousand charges submitted to a tunable electric field along the surface of a silicon oxide layer. Charges are both deposited and observed using the same Electrostatic…
Shear thickening is a phenomenon of significant viscosity increase of colloidal suspensions. While electrorheological (ER) fluids can be turned into a solid-like material by applying an electric field, their shear strength is widely…