On natural solutal convection in magnetic fluids

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate natural solutal convection in a magnetic fluid caused by non-homogeneous initial distribution of colloidal particles in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell. For experiment, we used a dilute magnetic fluid of the “magnetite–kerosene–oleic acid” type. The initial distribution of particles was formed by magnetophoresis of the drop-like aggregates and their sedimentation on the surface of the diamagnetic disk located in the center of the cell. Application of the magnetic field on the system led to the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and formation of descending convective jets. The velocity of the flow at the front of descending jets was measured for different values of cell thickness (up to 0.18 mm) and strength of the magnetic field generating the drop-like aggregates (up to 21 kA/m). The solutal Rayleigh numbers varied in the range Ra = 50–105. It was shown that the intensity of the convective flow characterized by the Reynolds number Re, increases with the Rayleigh number according to the power law: Re = 1.16 × 10−5Ra0.86.