Wetting effects on magneto-hydrostatics of rotating ferrofluid drops: experimental and computational analysis

Abstract We study mechanisms of instabilities of rigidly rotating sessile ferrofluid drops in a DC magnetic field oriented parallel to rotation axis. The experiments and computations show that wetting affects both the stability limits and the breaking mechanism of a drop, which rotates with increasing angular velocity under constant magnetic field strength. It is demonstrated that fixing the contact angle or fixing the contact line makes a difference in the break up.