Generation, Growth and Collapse of a Bubble in Conductive Liquid Heated Directly by Electric Current

Bubbles generated in conductive ink heated directly by electric current pulses can be used in an ink-jet printer to eject ink-droplets. Such parameters as the time required for bubble nucleation, growth rate of the bubble, maximum radius of the bubble and electric power input required for bubble generation, which depend strongly on the shape and size of electrodes immersed in the ink, influence the performance of the printer. A method of numerical analysis was developed to investigate the temperature distribution of the ink and dynamics of the bubble, and was confirmed to give values of the above parameters which were in good agreement with those of experiment. An optimum configuration of the electrodes was suggested, based on the comparison of results calculated for different shapes and dimensions of the electrodes.