Influence of gravitational sedimentation of magnetic particles on ferrofluid convection in experiments and numerical simulations

In this study the effect of gravity sedimentation on ferrofluid convection has been studied both by experiments and numerical simulations. To take into account the sedimentation density gradient a two-phase mixture model was used in the simulations. Temperature difference across the layer and concentration of magnetic phase were varied in order to control the driving magnetic forces and sedimentation damping effects. Both the experiments and the simulations showed that sedimentation gradient within the fluid layer may lead to oscillatory convection.