Contactless flow measurement in liquid metal using electromagnetic time-of-flight method

Abstract

Measuring flow rates of liquid metal flows is of utmost importance in industrial applications such as metal casting, in order to ensure process efficiency and product quality. A non-contact method for flow rate control is described here. The method is known as time-of-flight Lorentz force velocimetry (LFV) and determines flow rate through measurement of Lorentz force that act on magnet systems that are placed close to the flow. In this method, a vortex generator is used to generate an eddy in the flow, with two magnet systems separated by a known distance placed downstream of the vortex generator. Each of the magnet systems has a force sensor attached to them which detects the passing of the eddy through its magnetic field as a significant perturbation in the force signal. The flow rate is estimated from the time span between the perturbations in the two force signals. In this paper, time-of-flight LFV technique is demonstrated experimentally for the case of liquid metal flow in a closed rectangular duct loop that is driven by an electromagnetic pump. A liquid metal alloy of gallium (Ga), indium (In) and tin (Sn)—GaInSn—is used as the working fluid. In contrast to prior works, for the first time, three-dimensional strain gauge force sensors were used for measuring Lorentz force to investigate the effect of flow disturbances in different directions for flow measurements by the time-of-flight LFV method. A prototype time-of-flight LFV flowmeter is developed, the operation of which in laboratory conditions is characterised by different experiments.