Experimentally verified physical model of ferromagnetic microparticles separation in magnetic gradient inside a set of steel spheres

Abstract

In this work, we describe the model of magnetic Fe2O3 submicroparticles separation during transit of their water dispersion through separation pipe based on matrix of closely organized steel spheres. The fundamental idea originates from detailed field analysis of gradient magnetic field in spheres contacts ambient generated by external magnetic field and its influence on flowing submicroparticles. During the model derivation, the fundamental physical principles have been applied to minimise the influence of the phenomenological members. The determined result formula related to the separation model determines exit dispersion particles concentration and equivalent form of device efficiency. In its fundamental shape, this formula is the function of nine independent physical parameters. In the frame of its experimental verification, most of these parameters have been fixed. The experimental data have been correlated with our model prediction, where only the following three independent variables have been implemented: separation tube length, particles size, and external magnetic field intensity. The theory and experiment comparison have shown that the coefficient of determination R-2 is over 0.997. At the same time, the described theoretical model specifies the approach for optimal parameters selection to achieve the requested separation efficiency in concrete conditions.