A study on the pumping forces of the magnetic fluid linear pump

In this paper, the method to compute the pumping forces of the magnetic fluid linear pump (MFLP) is derived. The change of magnetic fluid surface according to the driving currents could be obtained by magnetohydrodynamic analysis so that pumping forces could be computed by integration of the surface moving to the pumping direction at each moment. Optimum design using three-dimensional finite-element method with hydrodynamic analysis was performed, and MFLP with 12-mm diameter was made for experiments. The effects of driving current and frequency on the pumping forces and pumping speed were analyzed and compared with experimental measurements.