Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. (2015) 71: 10902
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2015150089

Magnetic compensation of gravity in fluids: performance and constraints^*

¹ Laboratoire Géoressources, Université de Lorraine-CNRS, rue du Doyen Roubault, 54500 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France
² Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636 CNRS – ESPCI – Université Pierre et Marie Curie – Université Paris Diderot, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
³ Service des Basses Températures, UMR-E CEA/UJF-Grenoble 1, INAC, Grenoble 38054, France
⁴ SACM/CEA Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

^a e-mail: clement.lorin@gmail.com

Received: 11 February 2015
Revised: 26 May 2015
Accepted: 23 June 2015
Published online: 29 July 2015

Abstract

The paper deals with the main theoretical and experimental results gathered over the past 15 years in the domain of magnetic compensation of gravity. Such a technique for which very high fields are required has mainly been used to investigate the behaviour of fluids under space conditions of weightlessness. Advantage and drawback of magnetic levitation are presented; its application for analyzing two-phase fluid behaviour is described.