The magnetic body force in ferrofluids

The modeling of electromagnetically-operated fluids represents a technologically relevant domain, yet a scientifically challenging study. In particular, real fluids typically fall between existing consolidated models, such as hydrodynamics, electrohydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics and ferrohydrodynamics. A key element for the description of dynamic phenomena is the so called magnetic body force, whose role is that of shaping electromagnetic forces under simplified schemes and capturing the broadest phenomena possible. In this study a simple model equation is proposed and justified in light of existing literature, and the benefits of decoupling the effects of temperature and external magnetic field are discussed making reference to the advantages gained in numerical simulations. (paper)