Material processing in high static magnetic field. A review of an experimental study on levitation, phase separation, convection and texturation

An inhomogeneous magnetic field exerts a force on magnetic materials and can be used either to compensate gravity, control convection in a magnetic liquid or modify the microstructure of a solidified multiphased system where the phases exhibit different magnetic susceptibilities. A homogeneous field may produce a preferred crystallographic alignment in systems which exhibit an anisotropy of their magnetic susceptibility near their melting point. We present an experimental study of those effects, demonstrating their impact on the elaboration of a wide range of materials