JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 86, NUMBER 5 1 SEPTEMBER 1999

Magnetic field enhancement of water vaporization

Jun Nakagawa
Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan,
and TDK Corporation, Materials Research Center, 570-2 Matsugashita, Minamihatori, Narita,
Chiba 286-8588, Japan
Noriyuki Hirota and Koichi Kitazawaa)
Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Makoto Shoda
Research Laboratory of Resources Utilization, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku,
Yokohama 226-8503, Japan
共Received 29 April 1999; accepted for publication 19 May 1999兲
The water vaporization rate, an essential process for all the biological processes, was found to be
significantly influenced under static magnetic fields up to 8 T in air and oxygen. The magnitude of
the effect depended on the field–field gradient product B•dB/dx rather than on B itself. Under
forced flow conditions of the atmosphere, both enhancement and suppression of the vaporization
rate were observed depending upon the direction of the gas flow relative to the field gradient. A
mechanism is proposed to explain the results in a systematic manner based on the assumption of the
creation of magnetic wind driven by the gradient susceptibility distribution caused by water content
distribution in the atmosphere. It is discussed that this magneto enhancement of vaporization may
be the indirect cause of frequently reported field effects on living organisms. © 1999 American
Institute of Physics. 关S0021-8979共99兲00117-6兴

It has been of great concern and still remains controver-
sial whether the magnetic field exerts any effect on the pro-
cesses of living bodies.1 There are, however, two essentially
different types of conceivable field effects. One is a direct
field effect on biochemical reactions, while the other is indi-
rect via changes in the surroundings. In the case of the
former effect, the concern might be its possible conse-
quences that the genetic influence of the magnetic field could
have on living organisms. In the case of the latter, however,
the magnetic field effects can be considered as any other
external parameters such as temperature, pressure, or me-
chanical stirring which are no cause for worry.
In the experiments so far performed on living bodies,
however, little efforts have been made to discriminate the
indirect effects from the direct ones. If water vaporization is
enhanced under magnetic fields, it then changes the content
in the surrounding aqueous and gaseous media and lowers
the temperature of the water, which in turn will change the
experimental conditions and hence changes the results. This
study reports that water vaporization is indeed significantly
enhanced by the application of magnetic fields.
In the course of studies on microbial processes, we no-
ticed a faster drying of incubation solutions under magnetic
fields. In order to confirm the observation quantitatively, we
designed a simplified experiment to observe the rate of va-
porization of water precisely in the presence of magnetic
fields.
As shown in Fig. 1, an increase was observed in the
magnetic field of the water vaporization rate from vessels
placed in different positions in a horizontal superconducting
a兲
Electronic mail: kitazawa@mail.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
solenoid magnet of the field distribution given in Fig. 2. A
similar enhancement was observed at 293 and 303 K as well.
Because the vaporization rate enhancement was greater
when the vessel was placed off the field center (x
⫽60 mm), we assumed that it was due to the field gradient
rather than the field itself. A volume magnetic force of
( ␹ / ␮ 0 )•B•dB/dx would be exerted on a substance with the
volume susceptibility ␹ in the field gradient dB/dx, where
␮ 0 is the permeability of vacuum. If both the air and the
water are uniform in ␹ values, there will not be any flow
created by the magnetic force. In the design of the experi-
ment, the water phase should be uniform, but there could be
some nonuniform distribution of ␹ in the atmosphere be-
cause of the occurrence of vaporization.
The possibility of magnetic convection in the atmo-
spheric gas was hence examined. The paramagnetic volume
susceptibility of air, ␹ air⫽⫹0.3736⫻10⫺6 , in System Inter-
national 共SI兲 units is mainly contributed by oxygen gas,
␹ O2⫽⫹1.8028⫻10⫺6 , while nitrogen and water vapors are
both diamagnetic with much smaller contributions, ␹ N2
⫽⫺0.0063⫻10⫺6 and ␹ H2O⫽⫺0.0068⫻10⫺6 at 293 K, 1
atm. During the vaporization process, a susceptibility gradi-
ent could be created along the vertical z axis in the atmo-
sphere above the water surface. This is because the water
vapor content should be larger near the water surface than at
a distance if the diffusion process of water vapor in the at-
mosphere is the rate determining step of the vaporization, as
shown in Fig. 3. The saturated vapor pressure of water, 2338
Pa 共0.0231 atm.兲, in the air at 293 K reduces the susceptibil-
ity of the air to ␹ sat , 2.35% less than the ␹ air of the dry air.
The difference in the volume magnetic force ⌬F m ex-

0021-8979/99/86(5)/2923/3/$15.00 2923 © 1999 American Institute of Physics

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2924 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 86, No. 5, 1 September 1999 Nakagawa et al.

FIG. 3. Schematics of water vaporization and induction of the atmospheric

magnetic convection under a magnetic field gradient and a perpendicular
gradient of the water vapor content.

vaporization rate was monitored by a humidity sensor placed

in the outlet gas. First, no magnetic influence was observed
in nitrogen, which was expected because of the tiny differ-
FIG. 1. Weight decrease of water in air at 298⫾0.1 K from a vessel placed ence between ␹ N2 and ␹ H2O . On the contrary, a significant
at the field center (x⫽0) and at off center x⫽60 mm in a superconducting field effect was observed in oxygen. This strongly supports
magnet bore with the field distribution as shown in Fig. 2. Max. field 8 T.
Initial amount of de-ionized water: 2.6 g in a plastic cell the magnetic convection mechanism, considering the fact
(W20⫻D20⫻H18 mm3兲. Vaporization chamber: temperature regulated by a that ␹ O2Ⰷ ␹ H2O .
plastic double wall tube of 36 mm i.d. and length of 570 mm with both ends Therefore, the change in the vaporization rate was mea-
opened to the room environment through holes of 7 mm i.d. and 60 mm
length.
sured in oxygen as a function of the water vessel position x,
relative to the field distribution, at various flow velocities of
the oxygen gas. If the convection induced magnetically in
erted on the wet air near the water surface and the dry air in the atmosphere near the water surface is of the same direc-
bulk would be ⌬F m ⫽(⌬ ␹ / ␮ 0 )•B•dB/dx, where ⌬ ␹ ⬅ ␹ air tion as that of the external flow of the gas, the gas flow
⫺ ␹ wet⫽0.0088⫻10⫺6 and B•dB/dx is 320 T2/m at x velocity near the water surface will add up and thereby en-
⫽60 mm. The estimated difference in the magnetic force
directed towards the field center in the wet 共near the water
surface兲 and dry 共at a distance from the surface兲 parts of the
atmosphere is 2.2 N/m3 共1.7 N/kg兲, corresponding to ⬃17%
of the gravitational force exerted on the air. This difference
would be as large as the driving force expected when the
thermal convection takes place between two air regions of
different temperatures, 293 and 293⫹50 K. Thus, a rather
strong magnetic convection induced by water vaporization
should be expected.
To confirm the occurrence of such a significant atmo-
spheric convection under the conditions of the isothermal
vaporization process, the following experiments were per-
formed under flowing dry carrier gases, nitrogen and oxygen,
on the water surface in the setup shown in Fig. 4. The water

FIG. 2. Distribution of magnetic field B and the index of magnetic force
B•dB/dx of the superconducting magnet; bore-diameter 50 mm, bore length
470 mm.
FIG. 4. Setup for water vaporization under externally forced carrier gas
flow; 4 g of water set in vaporization cells of L30 mm, W20 mm, and H20
mm. A dry carrier gas was introduced through a stainless tube of 4.3 mm i.d.
and passed over the water surface in the vessel towards the ⫹x direction.
The cell was set at various positions x.

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J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 86, No. 5, 1 September 1999
FIG. 5. Vaporization rate 共a兲 and normalized vaporization rate 共b兲 of water
under oxygen gas flow at a speed of 100–500 ml/min.
hance the vaporization. On the other hand, if the two flows
are opposite in direction, the field should rather suppress the
vaporization rate.
As shown in Fig. 5, the vaporization under the oxygen
flow was enhanced at x⬎0 vessel positions and suppressed
at x⬍0 positions as exactly anticipated. The degree of both
enhancement and suppression was the largest at x
⫽⫾60 mm positions. These are the positions where the mag-
netic force and, hence, the magnetic convection are expected
to be maximized. This provides definite qualitative support
for the magnetic convection mechanism.
To substantiate the magnetic convection mechanism
quantitatively, a rough estimation was made on the convec-
tion velocity in the scheme of the idealized viscous flow of
the atmosphere. A simplified convection circuit may be as-
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Nakagawa et al. 2925
sumed in the vaporization cell of a total circular length of 60
mm, a height of 6.7 mm, which is half of the height of gas
phase above water surface, and width of infinite length in a
steady state viscous flow mode. If a force (⌬ ␹ / ␮ 0 )•B
•dB/dx is applied on this convection circuit along one di-
rection in the upper half of the circuit and the opposite di-
rection in the lower half, then the circuit will turn around
with a linear viscous velocity of 0.34 m/s for ⌬ ␹ ⫽0.0088
⫻10⫺6 and the viscosity of the air ␩ ⫽1.82⫻10⫺5 Pa s.
The real convection velocity is thought to be smaller
than this rough estimation because the values adopted are the
possible maximum in their distributions. Compared with the
linear velocities of the externally forced gas flow employed
in the experiments, 0.006–0.031 cm/s, the expected convec-
tion velocity is large enough to justifying the magneto-
convection mechanism.
For a liquid of higher vapor pressure, the motive force
(⌬ ␹ / ␮ 0 )•B•dB/dx should be accordingly increased to in-
duce the magneto convection and hence a more significant
magneto vaporization. This was confirmed when ethanol was
used instead of water. The equilibrium vapor pressure of
ethanol was 5866 Pa at 293 K, 2.5 times larger than that of
water. Enhancement of up to two times was observed for the
rate of ethanol vaporization in the same experiment shown in
Fig. 1, further supporting the mechanism proposed.
We may generally state the necessary conditions for the
occurrence of magneto convection in the atmosphere as the
presence of a magnetic susceptibility gradient in it, which is
perpendicular to the magnetic field gradient. The conditions
are satisfied when vaporization takes place from the liquid
surface extending along the field gradient.
Occurrence of magneto convection has been reported in
relation to temperature gradient in the atmosphere2,3 and with
the motion of N2 – H2O gas emitted in the air.4 However, this
report concerns the magnetic field effect on the vaporization
process of a liquid.
In conclusion, the vaporization or drying process in the
air can be significantly enhanced under a magnetic field gra-
dient in the tesla range. As a consequence, when living or-
ganisms are placed under a magnetic field with gradient, they
may feel colder due to the latent heat of vaporization, and
they may experience aqueous environments with different
concentration of ingredients from the intended values. These
changes in environmental conditions should necessarily
cause some change in the experimental results when living
organisms are subjected to the magnetic field for examina-
tion. Therefore a special consideration must be taken when
to judge whether the magnetic field really has an effect on
living organisms.
1
Biological Effects of Static Magnetic Fields 共International Cryogenic Ma-
terials Commission, 1992兲.
2
J. R. Carruthers and R. Wolfe, J. Appl. Phys. 39, 5718 共1968兲.
3
J. Ecochard and G. Maret, Naturwissenschaften 74, 39 共1987兲.
4
N. I. Wakayama, Combust. Flame 93, 207 共1993兲.