Thermomagnetic Convection Around a Current-Carrying Wire in Ferrofluid

Abstract

Thermomagnetic convection of a ferrofluid flow induced by the internal magnetic field around a vertical current-carrying wire was theoretically analyzed and experimentally validated for the first time. The Nusselt number for a heated 50-μm diameter wire in a ferrofluid was measured for different electrical currents and fluid temperatures. The experimental results are in a good agreement with the proposed scaling analysis. We found that increasing the current will increase the Nusselt number nonlinearly and ultimately enhances the heat transfer capability of the induced ferrofluid flow. We observed that the thermomagnetic convection becomes dominant, if large enough currents are applied.