Pattern formation in ferrogels: analysis of the Rosensweig instability using the energy method

Stefan Bohlius, Harald Pleiner, Helmut R Brand
2006 Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter  
We present a nonlinear description of the Rosensweig instability in isotropic magnetic gels based on the energy minimizing method used by Gailitis to describe the Rosensweig instability in typical ferrofluids. We extend his discussion to media with elastic degrees of freedom, assuming the shear modulus as a perturbation to the pure fluid case. We study the relative stability of the regular planforms of stripes, squares and hexagons as a function of the elastic shear modulus.
doi:10.1088/0953-8984/18/38/s10 fatcat:fafgzysutzfztfxizlppkuodvm