The magnetohydrodynamic force experienced by spherical iron particles in liquid metal

•We found the expression of an MHD force experienced by a spherical iron particle in a liquid metal taking into account the second order effect additionally to Leenov & Kolin’s theoretical solution.•We found the effective conductivity of an iron particle in a liquid metal in quasi-empirical way equal to 1.5·106 S/m.•It is important to use the expression of an MHD force, which takes into account the second-order effect, as well as the correction for effective conductivity of a particle, to describe behaviour of iron particles in liquid metal flows, which are under influence or induced by the Lorentz force.

The paper contains a theoretical investigation of magnetohydrodynamic force experienced by iron particles (well-conducting and ferromagnetic) in well-conducting liquid. The investigation is performed by extending the Leenov and Kolin's theory to take into account the second-order effect. Therefore, the limits of the parent model are taken over to the present results. It is found that the effective conductivity of iron particles in liquid metal, which is important for practical application of the theoretically obtained force, is approximately equal to 1.5·106 S/m. The last result is obtained using a quasi-empirical approach – a comparison of experimental results with the results of the numerical simulation that was performed for various conductivities of the iron particles.