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Ferrofluids and magnetically guided superparamagnetic particles in flows: a review of simulations and modeling

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Abstract

Ferrofluids are typically suspensions of magnetite nanoparticles, and behave as a homogeneous continuum. The ability of the ferrofluid to respond to an external magnetic field in a controllable manner has made it emerge as a smart material in a variety of applications, such as seals, lubricants, electronics cooling, shock absorbers and adaptive optics. Magnetic nanoparticle suspensions have also gained attraction recently in a range of biomedical applications, such as cell separation, hyperthermia, MRI, drug targeting and cancer diagnosis. In this review, we provide an introduction to mathematical modeling of three problems: motion of superparamagnetic nanoparticles in magnetic drug targeting, the motion of a ferrofluid drop consisting of chemically bound nanoparticles without a carrier fluid, and the breakage of a thin film of a ferrofluid.

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Acknowledgements

This work is partially supported by NSF-DMS-1311707 and NSF-CBET-1604351.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematical Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Shahriar Afkhami

  2. Department of Mathematics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Yuriko Renardy

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  1. Shahriar Afkhami
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  2. Yuriko Renardy
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Correspondence to Shahriar Afkhami.

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Afkhami, S., Renardy, Y. Ferrofluids and magnetically guided superparamagnetic particles in flows: a review of simulations and modeling. J Eng Math 107, 231–251 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-017-9931-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10665-017-9931-9

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