Vertical flotation of particles in a paramagnetic fluid

Hirota et al. [6] found that the magneto-Archimedes force could be used to levitate biological materials at different heights in pressurized oxygen, providing the possibility to separate them. However the magnetic levitation of mineral particles has not been widely explored. With this in mind some preliminary experiments were performed by levitating pure mineral materials in a paramagnetic solution manganese (II) chloride. Besides the report of levitation heights of various mineral particles in manganese (II) chloride solution, the lines obtained from the basic formula provided by previous researchers were compared with experimental data. The act of cryogenic paramagnetic fluid in the magneto-Archimedes levitation was also demonstrated. The obtained results are compared with the same particle levitation heights in manganese (II) chloride solution. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Horizontal deflection of single particle in a paramagnetic fluid

This paper describes the horizontal deflection behaviour of a single particle in paramagnetic fluids under a high-gradient superconducting magnetic field. A glass box was designed to carry out experiments and test assumptions. It was found that the particles were deflected away from the magnet bore centre and particles with different density and/or susceptibility settled at a certain position on the container floor due to the combined forces of gravity and magneto-Archimedes as well as lateral buoyant (displacement) force. Matlab was chosen to simulate the movement of the particle in the magnetic fluid, the simulation results were in good accordance with experimental data. The results presented here, though, are still very much in their infancy, which could potentially form the basis of a new approach to separating materials based on a combination of density and susceptibility. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2014 EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.