Experimental study and optimized design on electromagnetic pump for liquid sodium

Abstract

The electromagnetic pump (EMP) was a critical device and widely applied in Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFR) to deliver liquid sodium. Annular linear induction pump (ALIP) showed relatively higher efficiency than other pumps. Equivalent circuit method was commonly adopted to design the ALIP. Hence, a theoretical model between flow rate and developed pressure of EMP was proposed after detailed deduction based on equivalent circuit theory. To verify the theoretical model, some tests of ALIP were conducted to investigate the characteristic of volume flow rate and developed pressure. Besides, sodium temperature limitation test was also accomplished to test the heat dissipation ability of winding coils through natural air-cooling, results showed that the limit was about 270 °C. Performance analyses was carried out through proposed model which has been verified by experimental results. It turned out that power frequency has positive effect on the pump, whereas sodium temperature showed converse results. Furthermore, the developed pressure increased fast first and then turn to decrease gradually as the annular flow channel width increases. Finally an optimized design was put forward after combining theoretical analyses and experimental research. Compared to the previous ALIP, the volume flow rate, developed pressure and efficiency increased from 9.07 m3·h−1, 386.96 kPa and 28.6% to 10.0 m3·h−1, 574.55 kPa and 48.11% respectively.