EFFECTS OF ELECTRIC FIELDS ON WATER-DROPLET COALESCENCE

Abstract

Growth of incipient precipitation particles by collision and coalescence with cloud droplets is one of the primary mechanisms of natural rain. Comparison of previous research shows wide divergence between various theoretical and laboratory values of collision efficiency and coalescence efficiency. In an effort to obtain additional laboratory measurements of droplet coalescence, high-speed photographs were taken of colliding droplets at the breakup point in a Rayleigh jet. With 700-micron diam droplets, less than 30 per cent of the collisions result in coalescence under no field condition. At fields of about 40 v per cm, the coalescence was about 100 per cent under all conditions of field.