Society for Mathematical Biology nautilus logo

International Conference on Mathematical Biology and

Annual Meeting of The Society for Mathematical Biology,

July 27-30, 2009

University of British Columbia, Vancouver

.

Program

Poster PS24B
Yuriko Renardy
Virginia Tech
Title Field-induced motion of a ferrofluid droplet: a testbed for treatment of retinal detachment
Abstract Recent developments in the synthesis and characterization of ferrofluids are motivated by biomedical applications, where the treatment of retinal detachment is one example. A small amount of ferrofluid is injected into the vitreous cavity of the eye and guided by a permanent magnet inserted outside the scleral wall of the eye. The drop travels toward the side of the eye, until it can seal a retinal hole. The time taken for the drop to migrate is an important quantity which needs to be predicted, and which must be relatively short for the feasibility of this procedure. The motion of a hydrophobic ferrofluid droplet under an externally applied magnetic field is investigated numerically. A viscous medium models the vitreous material. The time taken by the droplet to travel through the medium and the deformations in drop shape are investigated and found to compare well with an experimental study on a simplified model.
CoauthorsS. Afkhami, J. S. Riffle, T. G. St. Pierre, M. Renardy
LocationWoodward Lobby (Wednesday-Thursday)