Ferrofluid dynamics in a Hele-Shaw cell simultaneously stressed by DC and rotating magnetic fields

Earlier experiments have been repeated to evaluate magnetic fluid behavior in DC, AC and rotating magnetic fields. Understanding these behaviors are essential to the ferrohydrodynamic applications of ferrofluids in biomedicine. Careful measurements in Hele-Shaw cells with simultaneous perpendicular DC and in-plane rotating magnetic fields have shown that ferrofluid drop spiral patterns rotate in the same direction as the rotating magnetic field, independent of the polarity of the perpendicular DC magnetic field. This corrects inconsistencies in previously reported measurements. The large and heavy electromagnet and power supply used in earlier work were also replaced by a small permanent magnet assembly from MagswitchTM to still produce ferrofluid spirals and spontaneous self-assembling ferrofluid dot patterns.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Orji, Uzoma A

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Markus Zahn.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/41666

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/41666