A new miniaturized engine based on thermomagnetic effect of magnetic fluids

Abstract

A new engine system, essentially consisting of a permanent NdFeB magnet, a kerosene-based magnetic fluid and a rotor, is proposed based on the thermomagnetic effect of a temperature-sensitive magnetic fluid. The rotor was driven by the thermal convection of the magnetic fluid in the presence of a homogeneous external magnetic field. A digital camera was used to record the rotation speed of the rotor to investigate the performance of the engine system under varying conditions such as heat load, heat sink temperature, and magnetic field distribution. The peak angle velocity obtained for the rotor was about 2.1 rad/min. The results illustrate that the rotation speed of the rotor increases as the input heat load increases, or as the heat sink temperature decreases. The performance of the motor is considerably influenced by the magnetic field imposed. Therefore, the performance of such an engine can be controlled conveniently by changing the external magnetic field and/or the temperature distribution in the fluid.

Keywords

magnetic fluid / thermomagnetic effect / engine

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Acknowledgments

This work was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50436020).

Notation

\mathit{\Lambda }	magnetic induction/(N·A-1·m-1)
BoldItalic	force density/(N·m-3)
H	scalar magnitude of magnetic field intensity/(A·m-1)
M	scalar magnitude of magnetization/ (A·m-1)
S	area/m2
T	temperature/K
TO	torque/(N•m)
μ0	permeability of free space/(N·A-2)
TOD	driving torque/(N·m)
TOR	maximum static resisting torque/(N·m)
TOL	load torque/(N·m)
TOF	friction torque of rotor axis/(N·m)
TOS	resisting torque caused by surface tension/(N·m)
x	distance/mm
W	work/J

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