Thermodiffusion in concentrated ferrofluids: A review and current experimental and numerical results on non-magnetic thermodiffusion
- Institute of Fluid Mechanics, Chair of Magnetofluiddynamics, Measuring and Automation Technology, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden (Germany)
Ferrofluids are colloidal suspensions consisting of magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a carrier liquid. Their thermodiffusive behaviour is rather strong compared to molecular binary mixtures, leading to a Soret coefficient (S{sub T}) of 0.16 K{sup −1}. Former experiments with dilute magnetic fluids have been done with thermogravitational columns or horizontal thermodiffusion cells by different research groups. Considering the horizontal thermodiffusion cell, a former analytical approach has been used to solve the phenomenological diffusion equation in one dimension assuming a constant concentration gradient over the cell's height. The current experimental work is based on the horizontal separation cell and emphasises the comparison of the concentration development in different concentrated magnetic fluids and at different temperature gradients. The ferrofluid investigated is the kerosene-based EMG905 (Ferrotec) to be compared with the APG513A (Ferrotec), both containing magnetite nanoparticles. The experiments prove that the separation process linearly depends on the temperature gradient and that a constant concentration gradient develops in the setup due to the separation. Analytical one dimensional and numerical three dimensional approaches to solve the diffusion equation are derived to be compared with the solution used so far for dilute fluids to see if formerly made assumptions also hold for higher concentrated fluids. Both, the analytical and numerical solutions, either in a phenomenological or a thermodynamic description, are able to reproduce the separation signal gained from the experiments. The Soret coefficient can then be determined to 0.184 K{sup −1} in the analytical case and 0.29 K{sup −1} in the numerical case. Former theoretical approaches for dilute magnetic fluids underestimate the strength of the separation in the case of a concentrated ferrofluid.
- OSTI ID:
- 22257760
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Fluids (1994), Vol. 25, Issue 12; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-6631
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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