here is another article researching e-fields and water, its focus is related to ice formation but has some very interesting information throughout ( some interesting formulas also).
https://gmwgroup.harvard.edu/pubs/pdf/1109.pdfHeres a few bits of text that are relevant ( my comments in bold italics):
" the complete alignment of water molecules in an
electrical field at ambient temperatures requires
intensities on the order of 1,000,000,000 V/m,
but partial alignment can be observed in fields
with intensities at 10,000,000 V/m because such
alignment causes a measurable change in the dielectric constant
of water. "
So 1 million volts per mm required for complete alignment,
and 10 thousand volts per mm required for partial alignment.
This might suggest that the wfc of stan is not aligning the water
molecules across the bulk of the water, since the voltage are much
lower, but near the electrode surface might be where the alignment
is occuring.
The injector though using higher voltages and small electrode space,
may be partially aligning the water ( though the e-field is diminished inside
water droplets)Applying Electric Fields in Bulk Water.
In pure water,autoionization of water molecules
produces a constant concentration of hydroxide
and hydronium ions. These free ions can re-distribute
to form Debye space charge layers that screen electric
fields. Even if all ions were instantaneously removed from water,
autoionization would recreate the original concentration of free
ions. To apply external electric fields in pure water, we applied
temporally variable electric fields that had a rate of change that is
faster than the characteristic rate of charge creation due to
autoionization ( 20khz),and the rate of formation of the debye layer(5khz).
I think what is being said here is that water reacts to electric fields by
moving space charges ( debye field) which act opposite to the field that
creates them. What the hell is a debye field?The minimum frequency,of an external sinusoidally varying electric field
that would not be screened is 3kHz
suggests that below 20khz not useful?both the autoionization rate and the density of ions decrease as
temperature decreases.
Dielectric breakdown strength of pure water is:
for millimeter size samples: 10,000,000 v/m
for micrometer size samples: 100,000,000 v/m"
so max voltage would be 10kv per millimeter before breakdown at mm size gaps
For stans injector being a gap of 0.254mm ( 0.01") this might suggest over 10kv is
getting pretty close to the dielectric breakdown voltage in his injector.