Main components and performances of the IMGC calibration facilities for liquid helium flow rate measurements

Abstract

Within the framework of a National Project on superconductivity two facilities have been designed and built at the Istituto di Metrologia ‘G. Colonnetti’ (IMGC) with the purpose of studying and calibrating liquid helium flowmeters in the range 1–20 g s −1 of liquid helium (LHe). After a brief description of these set-ups, this Paper examines in detail the solutions adopted in the design of the main calibration facility, particularly with regard to the circulating pump and the submerged driving motor. The latter has been devised for working only at LHe temperature, having an a.c. three-phase stator winding made of thin superconducting wire. The construction characteristics and operation conditions are discussed. As a flow rate reference, a new turbine flowmeter with its rotor magnetically suspended by the Meissner effect (described in another paper presented at the workshop), is used. A LHe flow rate transducer, based upon the measurement of the transit time of short thermal pulses, has been designed and tested with these facilities: the good results obtained using commercial low cost diodes as ΔT sensors are reported.