Eur. Phys. J. E (2015) 38: 38
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2015-15038-y

Regular Article

Numerical investigation of thermo-magneto-solutal flow of ferrocolloid through ordered and disordered permeable membranes

Institute of Physics, Latvian University, Miera str. 32, LV-2169, Salaspils-1, Latvia

^* e-mail: Dmitrijs.Zablockis@gmail.com

Received: 16 July 2014
Revised: 10 March 2015
Accepted: 13 March 2015
Published online: 15 May 2015

Abstract

We explore the mechanism of ferroparticle transfer in porous structures in the conditions of simultaneous action of the thermal gradient and the magnetic field. We show that when a ferrocolloid saturated porous matrix is placed in a homogeneous magnetic field the grains of the porous frame notably distort the uniformity of the internal field by creating sharp gradients in the vicinity of the interface. On the other hand, the application of the temperature gradient creates an imbalance of the ferroparticle concentration in the bulk of the porous structure due to colloidal thermophoresis. The combination of the imbalance of concentration of the magnetic nanoparticles and the internal gradients of the magnetic field creates a magnetic force and convective flow of solution through the porous structure. We report the results of the pore-scale numerical simulations of the ferrocolloid thermo-magneto-solutal flow in geometrically simple ordered and disordered permeable structures and membranes with different porosity.