MICROGRAVITY EXPERIMENTS ON THERMOMAGNETIC CONVECTION IN MAGNETIC FLUIDS

We have investigated the onset and the flow profile of thermomagnetic convection in a cylindrical fluid layer. Under microgravity conditions provided by the use of sounding rockets and at the drop tower 'Bremen ' (ZARM, University of Bremen, Germany) the experiments could be carri ed out with periodic boundary conditions in which the vertical force o f gravity, that normally produces three-dimensional flow, is made negl igible, thus permitting the establishment of counter-rotating vortices .