Investigation of fluid marbles

• Main Author: Ching, Wei Zhi.
• Other Authors: Nguyen Nam-Trung
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Fluid mechanics
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40381
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this project, the focus was on using ferro-fluid to form the fluid marble and investigate the effect of magnets on its shape. Two main experiment, namely the static and motion experiment was done and dimensions of the ferro-fluid marble was measured using computer program. In the static experiment, various volumes of the ferro-fluid marble’s shape were measured. It was observed that the height of the 50 μl marble actually decreased while there was an increasing trend for the height of the 5-40 μl marbles. The contact length of the 50 μl marble also increased much more than it had for the 5-40 μl marbles. These results suggest that at 50 μl, the marble adopts a “puddle” shape, with increased contact length and shorter height due to the effects of gravity on its weight. In the second part of the static experiment, the ferro-fluid marbles’ shapes were measured while under the influence of different magnetic strength and with various volumes. With increasing magnetic strength, the magnetic attraction of the marbles was visually significant. The marbles “grew” flatter and longer with increasing magnetic strength. When the volume was varied, the experiment results showed a trend that the dimensions of the marbles tend to increase towards a constant value instead of increasing linearly. In the motion experiment, the marbles’ shape in motion was measured with magnets of different magnetic strength. The trend in this experiment was not so consistent. Several factors like magnetic strength, magnet dimension and marble volume affects the shape of the marbles in motion. However, it was observed that the larger volume of the marble makes the dimension of the marble not to change with increasing velocity.