Pumping Fluid With No Moving Parts 75
RogerRoast writes "In a study published in Physical Review B (abstract; full version is paywalled), researchers demonstrate for the first time an approach that allows ferrofluids to be pumped by magnetic fields alone. The invention could lead to new applications for this mysterious material. Though numerous industrial, commercial, and biomedical applications for ferrofluids have since been created, the original goal — to pump liquids with no machinery — remained elusive, until now. The ferrohydrodynamic pump method works when electrodes wound around a pipe force magnetic nanoparticles within the ferrofluids to rotate at varying speeds. Those particles closest to the electrodes spin faster, and it is this spatial variation in rotation speed that propels the ferrofluid forward."
Re:An evolution from magnetohydrodynamics... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you go by the book the Red October didn't use MHD, it had a propulsor that was mounted in the middle of a tube that ran the length of the ship so the noise was more difficult to detect.
Somebody had probably been talking to Clancy about the ducted propulsor that is used on the Seawolf class submarines and he changed a few details (like putting it inside the hull instead of on the back end of the ship) and used it as a plot point.