Application of Magnetic Fluid

The paper presents an experimental study of the capillary electrostatic instability occurring under effect of a constant electric field on a magnetic fluid individual peak. The peaks under study occur at disintegration of a magnetic fluid layer applied on a flat electrode surface under effect of a perpendicular magnetic field. The electrocapillary instability shows itself as an emission of charged drops jets from the peak point in direction of the opposing electrode. The charged drops emission repeats periodically and results in the peak shape pulsations. It is shown that a magnetic field affects the electrocapillary instability occurrence regularities and can stimulate its development. The critical electric and magnetic field strengths at which the instability occurs have been measured; their dependence on the peak size is shown. The hysteresis in the system has been studied; it consists in that the charged drops emission stops at a lesser electric (or magnetic) field strength than that of the initial occurrence. The peak pulsations frequency depending on the magnetic and electric field strengths and on the peak size has been measured.

A novel magnetic field sensing system based on fiber loop ring-down spectroscopy (FLRDS) and etched fiber interacting with magnetic fluid (MF) is proposed and demonstrated for the first time. The enhanced evanescent field effect in the sensing part was achieved by etching the fiber with hydrofluoric acid. The influence of diameters of etched fiber to the performance of the sensor was investigated and discussed. In the sensing system, the etched fiber surrounded by MF was used as the sensing head and on account of the tunable refractive index and absorption coefficient of MF, the transmission spectrum would change with the magnetic field strength. In this letter, the FLRDS sensing system was theoretically modeled and FLRDS technique was utilized to modulate the transmission spectrum. The sensitivity of magnetic field sensing was enhanced significantly. In the experiment, performances of the magnetic field sensing system were tested by applying different measured magnetic field. The final results indicated that a sensitivity of 12.56 G/μs was achieved.

Ferrofluid rotary seals are mechanical contact-free magnetic liquid seals that are characterised by their simple structure, low friction and ability to hermetically seal. Although ferrofluid rotary seals for sealing vacuum and gases are part of a well established industry, the sealing of liquids has not been implemented yet. Literature learns that degradation of the ferrofluid seal over time when it dynamically contacts a liquid results into premature seal failure. This paper presents a new type of ferrofluid rotary seal in which a ferrofluid replenishment system is implemented that renews the ferrofluid in the sealing ring while sealing capacity is maintained. By replacing the degraded ferrofluid in the seal at a sufficient rate, service life of the ferrofluid rotary seal can theoretically be unlimited. An analytical model and FEM analysis are used to design the ferrofluid sealing device and to predict its sealing capacity. An experimental test setup has been built on which the sealing capacity and service life of the device has been tested for different sealing conditions. It is demonstrated that the ferrofluid replenishment system successfully extends and controls the service life of the ferrofluid rotary seal that dynamically seals pressurised water.