From July 6 to 10, Mikhail Samuilovich Krakov, Professor at the Department of Energy Saving and Renewable Energy Sources at the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Belarusian National Technical University, participated in the 17th International Conference on Magnetic Fluids (ICMF17), which was held at the University of Vienna (Vienna, Austria). For almost fifty years (since 1977), ICMF has been the most prestigious and authoritative global forum for leading experts in the field of magneto-fluid systems physics and nanotechnology.
The special status of the Belarusian scientist's participation is emphasized by the fact that Mikhail Krakow has been a member of the International Steering Committee (ISC) of ICMF conferences for about 30 years (since 1990). This body includes researchers from the leading scientific powers in this field: Germany, Brazil, Slovakia, France, India, Russia, Romania, Japan, and Spain (as well as honorary members from the United States and Israel). Mikhail Saifulovich represents the Republic of Belarus in this elite international community, which means not only presenting his own research but also directly participating in shaping the global scientific agenda in the industry.
The scale of the ICMF17 forum itself is impressive, with 168 presentations by scientists from 34 countries.
BNTU was represented as widely as possible at this platform — Professor Mikhail Krakov (co-authored with Belarusian and Russian colleagues) presented the results of three advanced studies:
“The service life of static magneto-fluid seals and their restoration during shaft rotation: competition between magnetophoresis and hydrodynamics” (co-authored with Sofia Sharina, BSU). The report solved a crucial applied problem: the causes of fluid leakage from static seals due to particle settling were investigated. It has been theoretically and numerically proven that starting the shaft rotation allows to effectively homogenize the magnetic fluid and restore the seal tightness in a matter of seconds.
“Active control of thermomagnetic forced convection in flat microchannels by induced magnetic fields” (co-authored with Alina Ananich, BNTU). The work offers an innovative approach to cooling of microelectronics. The use of sinusoidal magnetizing elements allowed to create strong magnetic field gradients on a microscale without disturbing the smoothness of the channel walls. The optimal parameters were found, which provided a heat transfer increase of 23.1%.
“Fractal analysis of the instability structures of a mixed ferrofluid drop in a Hele-Shaw cell under the action of a perpendicular magnetic field” (together with Andrey Chernyshev and Artur Zakinyan, North Caucasus Federal University, Russia). As part of the fundamental research, the authors quantitatively characterized the emerging instability structures through their fractal dimension. It has been proven that the fractal dimension of the concentration isotherms increases with an increase in the magnetic field, and a characteristic maximum is observed in the time dependence due to the competition between magnetic forces and convective mixing. The experimental data are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations.
The large-scale presentation of the results by BNTU aroused deep professional interest among the international community and became the subject of a meaningful discussion.
Professor Mikhail Krakov's long-term membership in the International Steering Committee and the presentation of three advanced reports at the ICMF17 are clear evidence of the high authority of the BNTU scientific school. Belarusian researchers not only follow global trends, but also set the direction for the development of the entire discipline.
