A general theoretical model for the magnetohydrodynamic flow of micropolar magnetic fluids. Application to Stokes flow

摘要

Many practical applications, which have an inherent interest of physical and mathematical nature, involve the hydrodynamic flow in the presence of a magnetic field. Magnetic fluids comprise a novel class of engineering materials, where the coexistence of liquid and magnetic properties provides us with the opportunity to solve problems with high mathematical and technical complexity. Here, our purpose is to examine the micropolar magnetohydrodynamic flow of magnetic fluids by considering a colloidal suspension of ferromagnetic material (usually non-conductive) in a carrier magnetic liquid, which is in general electrically conductive. In this case, the ferromagnetic particles behave as rigid magnetic dipoles. Thus, the application of an external magnetic field, apart from the creation of an induced magnetic field of minor significance, will prevent the rotation of each particle, increasing the effective viscosity of the fluid and will cause the appearance of an additional magnetic pressure. Despite the fact that the general consideration consists of rigid particles of arbitrary shape, the assumption of spherical geometry is a very good approximation as a consequence of their small size. Our goal is to develop a general three-dimensional theoretical model that conforms to physical reality and at the same time permits the analytical investigation of the partial differential equations, which govern the micropolar hydrodynamic flow in such magnetic liquids. Furthermore, in the aim of establishing the consistency of our proposed model with the principles of both ferrohydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics, we take into account both magnetization and electrical conductivity of the fluid, respectively. Under this consideration, we perform an analytical treatment of these equations in order to obtain the three-dimensional effective viscosity and total pressure in terms of the velocity field, the total (applied and induced) magnetic field and the hydrodynamic and magnetic properties of the fluid, independently of the geometry of the flow. Moreover, we demonstrate the usefulness of our analytical approach by assuming a degenerate case of the aforementioned method, which is based on the reduction of the partial differential equations to a simpler shape that is similar to Stokes flow for the creeping motion of magnetic fluids. In view of this aim, we use the potential representation theory to construct a new complete and unique differential representation of magnetic Stokes flow, valid for non-axisymmetric geometries, which provides the velocity and total pressure fields in terms of easy-to-find potentials, via an analytical fashion.