On the equivalence of ,external electric field to the supersaturation ratio in water vapour condensation

Abstract

Theory of drop growth in presence of external electric field has been applied to water vapour condensation. The radius of critical nucleus is found to depend on electric field and relaxation time. Further, in presence of electric field, Helmholtz free energy of formation of water molecule about a critical nucleus is found to be much less than that in absence of the field; but equilibrium concentration of nuclei is very much large. The observation suggests that a small value of electric field is equivalent to very high supersaturation ratio to get a nucleus of given size under similar conditions of temperature.