Magnetic control of thermal convection in electrically non-conducting or low-conducting paramagnetic fluids

An inhomogeneous magnetic held exerts a magnetization force on all material s, including electrically conducting and non-conducting fluids. A recent ex periment demonstrated that this force can enhance or suppress convection in a paramagnetic aqueous solution heated from either below or above. In this paper, to clarify the mechanism of the observed phenomena, we numerically simulated the effect of a vertical magnetic field gradient on thermal conve ction in paramagnetic fluids. These simulated results agree with experiment al observations. Our study shows that the magnetic buoyancy force has poten tial applications For controlling convection and enhancing the heat transfe r efficiency in either electrically non-conducting or low-conducting fluids . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.