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Study on the Ferrofluid Lubrication with an External Magnetic Field

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Abstract

Ferrofluids (FFs) are stable colloidal systems consisting of single-domain magnetic particles with a diameter of approximately 10 nm coated with surfactants and dispersed in a carrier liquid. By applying an external magnetic field, these fluids can be confined, positioned, shaped and, controlled at desired places. The load capacity of a lubricant film of FF can also be increased with an appropriate magnetic field. In this paper, Fe3O4-based FFs with different saturation magnetizations (M s) were prepared by the co-precipitation technique. The tribological experiments of FFs under different magnets distributions were conducted on a ring-on-cylinder tribometer. The results show that the magnetic field intensity distributions on the rubbing surface have a significant influence on the tribological properties of FFs. The experimental results also indicate that FFs have a good friction-reduction performance in the presence of an external magnetic field compared with the carrier liquid and that its lifetime of friction can be greatly improved.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (no: 50875125), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (no: 200904501094) and NUAA Research Funding (no: NS2010125).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Huang, Cong Shen, Sijie Liao & Xiaolei Wang

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  1. Wei Huang
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  2. Cong Shen
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  3. Sijie Liao
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  4. Xiaolei Wang
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Correspondence to Wei Huang.

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Huang, W., Shen, C., Liao, S. et al. Study on the Ferrofluid Lubrication with an External Magnetic Field. Tribol Lett 41, 145–151 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9693-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-010-9693-2

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