  The capillary flow of a ferrofluid in a single cylindrical capillary tube and
through a sandy porous medium under the action of a non-uniform magnetic field
is studied experimentally. The dynamics of the capillary rise and the static
case have been considered. It has been shown that the non-uniform magnetic
field with upward directed gradient accelerates the capillary rise; contrary,
the non-uniform magnetic field with downward directed gradient decelerates the
capillary rise. Time dependences of the ferrofluid height and maximum reachable
height of ferrofluid have been analyzed. The method of the study of ferrofluid
capillary rise based on the use of magnetic measurements has been proposed. It
has been demonstrated that porous material parameters can be extracted from the
results of measurements of the inductances of the solenoid with porous medium
inside and the small sensing coil within a single experiment.
