Electromagnetic technique for liquid metal flow measurement by force time-of-flight principle

N Dubovikova (1) , Ch Karcher (1) , Y Kolesnikov (1)

1 Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics

Flow rate and velocity measurement in opaque and aggressive liquids such as metal melts is a challenging task in scopes, where flow should be controlled. Optical measurement techniques as well as submerging probes or control units cannot be applied in this highly severe environment; hence, contactless methods are of interest for practical flow control. One branch of such techniques is flow rate estimation by measurement of electromagnetic parameters. In this paper we present working principle and experimental results of a such contactless electromagnetic technique – time-of-flight Lorentz force velocimetry (LFV), which allows determine the flow rate of liquid metals. The principle is based on measurement of Lorentz force that generated inside liquid metal under its motion through magnetic field, because the force linearly depends on flow rate. The method needs neither additional calibration nor information about fluid properties and magnetic field magnitude.

Mots clés: flow rate; liquid metal; Lorentz force

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

N Dubovikova, Ch Karcher, Y Kolesnikov. Electromagnetic technique for liquid metal flow measurement by force time-of-flight principle. 8th International Conference on Electromagnetic Processing of Materials, Oct 2015, Cannes, France. ⟨hal-01335610⟩