Almtract--This paper is in four parts. Section I explains the theory of the induced-voltage electromagnetic
flowrneter and then considers various types which have been used. For the primary circuit of fast reactors
both flow-through type and probe type have been proposed, although obtaining magnets which operate
satisfactorily at high temperatures has been a problem. In the secondary circuit the high magnetic Reynolds
numbers cause the field to be swept out of the magnet gap and this has led to the use of the long saddle-coil
fiowmeter.
In Section 2 flux-distortion flowmeters are described. These have been proposed mainly for monitoring the
primary circuit flow and again both flow-through and probe types have been tested. Sections 3 and 4 continue
the discussion of the flux-distortion fiowmeter by introducing two methods of analysing its performance.
The first is a finite difference method which solves the non-linear problem by using a time marching method.
It is shown that a linear approximation is adequate for the likely levels of flow encountered in the fast reactor
and consequently two linearised solutions are used. The first method is a finite difference one and allows
the instantaneous response of a step change in velocity to be observed as well as the effect of bubbles.
In Part 4 the second linearized method uses current rings to divide up the conducting material. By con-
sidering the interaction of all the rings, it is possible to obtain the current distribution and hence the magnetic
field. In conclusion it is suggested that further development would be useful of the devices which are most
suited to the liquid metal fast breeder reactor.
41
42 ROGER C. BAKER
I V x B ffi#uj;
V . B -- 0.
where j is current density, o is conductivity, E is
(3)
(4)
V~U = - B0 dv ( r ) (10)
dr
For a non-conducting pipe wall the boundary
condition is
~u
c~'-'r-= -- v (r)Bs (11)
Fig. 3. Shercliff weight function for uniform field point
and it is shown by Baker (1968) that a solution of electrode flowmeter.
this is
U = - S[{v(x/pr) + v ( a , . / p / r ) } Bs(p,O)d p function to a weight vector W where the output
(12) signal of the flowmeter was given by
for a very long field (Fig. 2 gives the geometry). If AUEE -- Sv.WdT (I 5)
and where the integration is over the whole volume of
Non
/X 1 I__I A
Magnet(c Flux
the flowmeter. He showed (Bevir, 1970) that the
weight vector is given by
W = B L (16)
where j,, is the current density which would pertain
in the fluid if unit current entered by one electrode
and left by the other. It is known as the virtual
current.
Bevir showed that for an ideal flowrneter the curl
of the weight vector must be zero and that as a
result no point electrode circular pipe flowmeter
Fig. 2. Long ttowmeter geometry.
with insulating walls is ideal in the sense of providing
a signal which is always proportional to the mean
Be (r, 1)/2) is uniform the potential difference between flow. One important design of flowmeter which is
two electrodes separated by diameter d is ideal and which is frequently used for liquid metal
flow measurement is the rectangular section flow-
AUE~ = dB)'= (13) meter with large electrodes and uniform magnetic
and a flowmeter sensitivity is defined as field. This flowmeter measures the flow correctly
whatever the velocity profile.
5" = A U ~ (14) Shercliff (1962) also discussed the effect of a con-
dBv,, " ducting tube on the flowmeter signal. This has the
effect of shorting out some of the signal and the
The deceptively simple results of equation (13), sensitivity is reduced for a uniform field flowmeter
which seems to imply that the flowmeter is ideal in to
the sense of measuring mean velocity directly, has 2a'
led to a mistaken view of theflowmeter's performance S -- (a 2 + b2 ) + (k'/o')(1 + uz/a)(b 2 - a 2) (17)
and to balance this Shercliff0954, 1962) derived his
weight function plot to show the extent to which a where ,~ is wall conductivity, , is fluid conductivity,
flowmeter with uniform field is prone to error due T is the contact resistance Ixtween fluid and wall,
to non-axisymmetric profiles(Fig. 3). This plot gives 2a is the ID of tube, and 2b is the OD of the tube
a weight function by which any velocity in the tube wall.
must IX multiplied. Thus flow near electrodes will This effect is important in sodium flowmeters
be overweighted and away from electrodes, under- where the wall is usually of conducting material and
valued. Bevir extended this concept of a weighting is not insulated from the fluid (see Fig. 4). Equation
ROGER C. BAKER
I I ~M
Unatfogrnet.i
[
J Flux
characteristic to droop at high velocities and the
linearity of the flowmeter is lost.
MAGNETS~-ELEC
TRODE LEADS
ELECTRODES
The tests described by Glass and Popper (1968) Popper and Glass (1967) discuss the various
showed agreement with prediction to within 4% but calibration factors required for their design. They
a change of sensitivity of 30 ~ was experienced after give the equation for wall shorting obtained from
some flow rig modifications. The change was put Elrod and Fouse (1952). This is similar to the one
down to the effect of accidental and large welding given by Shercliff (1962) (equation (17)) except that
currents which had passed through the magnet. he included contact resistance, an unknown which
Having adjusted the predictions to allow for the nevertheless is likely to be significant in this applica-
change in magnetic field, tests at temperatures up to tion. Other correction factors discussed by Popper
1100F were promising. and Glass (1967) are for end-shorting for which a
The use of Alnico V magnets was based on con- graph is given and for magnet property variation.
siderations of temperature, metallurgical change, They did not observe any thermoelectric effects.
impact, nuclear radiation (Popper et al., 1967) and It would be useful to know more of the effect of
its ability to be cast and machined to the required bubbles on the response. Non-uniform distribution
dimensions (Forster, 1971). The flowmeters were of of bubbles would presumably behave like non-
all stainless steel construction apart from magnet uniform conductivity in the flow head, the effects of
and soft iron polepieces, and signal cable insulation which have been discussed by Baker (1970) and
was of high purity alumina (99.8~ Ala 0~). The Bevir (1971a) and shown to be small. The effect of a
flowrneters were filled with helium to aid in initial conducting wall would modify this theory and
leak detection and to help remove gamma heat from would also cause the wall shorting to increase when
the magnets. bubbles appeared.
The field of these flowmeters was fairly uniform The effect of sweeping will be small, and so the
and about 5 diameters long so that the small degree design of these meters should benefit from the
of field sweeping would be negligible, but signals extensive theory built up by Bevit (1970). With this
might have been affected by variation in flow pro- it should be possible to develop a design which had
files even though the profiles were axisymmetric. In low sensitivity to flow profile.
test the signal appeared to have been lower than
calculated by as much as 6 ~o. The cause of this is
not given. Turbulence noise appears to have been
easily observable. Magnet variation could account In-core probe-type flow sensor
for discrepancies as its drift was substantial and An interesting variation on this design is given by
random. Verber et al. (1971). The magnet and electrodes are
Yada (1970) has discussed a similar instrument built into a probe which can then be inserted in the
and he has also used an equation for wall shorting. centre of the ducts leaving an annulus for the sodium
This type of meter is also mentioned in Akiyama and to flow in (Fig. 6). Many of the constructional
Yada (1969). methods are common to the flow-through type
In both references the effect of temperature is discussed above. Cast Alnico XIII was selected for
illustrated by the change in the calibration curve. the magnet because of its high coercive force. The
This change was about a 6 ~o reduction in output for performance was satisfactory and the response linear.
a temperature increase from 250 to 450C. The disadvantage of this type of probe is that its
Both Yada (1970) and Akiyama and Yada (1969) response is heavily dependent on the velocity in the
also show a more conventional design of flowmeter vicinity of the probe and little dependent on the
for flow measurement in a liquid sodium loop. This velocities away from the probe. It does not give a
consists of a horse-shoe type magnet with a circular signal proportional to mean flow rate. This is shown
pipe between its pole-pieces. The whole is encased by the equation for the potential difference between
in a perforated box, presumably to reduce stray field the electrodes (Baker, 1968)
effects.
A UE~ = 2 ~ v ( ~/ar)Be(r,O)dr (18)
The use of coils to generate the magnetic field
(thus overcoming some of the problems associated (see Fig. 7 for geometry). 0 would be ,T/= for the
with permanent magnets) was rejected by Popper usual electrode positions.
et al. (1967) for three main reasons: (1) a large Bevir (1971b) gives a distribution of the weight
amount of power and current is needed to produce function from which it can be seen that the response
a modest flux; (2) the power is not easily transmitted is primarily due to the flow in the vicinity of the
to the meter, and (3) the large coils cannot easily be probe and particularly in the vicinity of the elec-
designed to fit within the limited space available. trodes.
46 ROOER C. BAKER
DUCT
MAGNETIC
SURFACE
!
1 r
~ ELECTRODE
proportional to flow within an absolute accuracy of
4-3 ~ and requiring no calibration. This flowmeter
which is basically an induced voltage type has a
conducting wall thus allowing signal shorting.
Figure 8 shows the layout of the coils which are laid
on to a tube concentric with the flow tube of dia-
meter greater than 2.5 times that of the flow tube.
The dimensions used for pipe and coils were approxi-
mately:
pipe ID 0.30 m;
Fig. 7. Probe geometry.
coil diameter 0.75 m;
coil length 2.34 m;
Secondary circuit saddle-coil flowmeters
field strength at axis 5 roT.
In the secondary circuit of the fast reactor the
magnetic Reynolds numbers are up to 5 and field The coil was mounted outside the pipe lagging. The
sweeping becomes an important consideration. resulting field was found to be approximately
Correct calibration is also important since a know- uniform across the pipe and remained uniform for
ledge of the reactor coolant flow rate is essential for about half the length of the coil. A number of
safe operation (Meshii and Ford, 1969). These electrode pairs were welded to the stainless steel
authors, using a flowmeter with a length-to-diameter flowtube to allow the saddle coils to be moved to
ratio of about 0.7 observed considerable non- assess the effect of a bend upstream. The test results
linearity due to field sweeping. The purpose of the were in good agreement with the predictions when
saddle-coil flowmeter is to overcome the problem of these were corrected for wall shorting (using
field sweeping. Shercliff's (1962) equation) and field sweeping (a
Thatcher et al. (1970) have described a meter of small effect and tabulated in the paper). The highest
this sort which was claimed would give an output value of R . was 5. For a pipe bend in the magnetic
DUCT
Fig. 8. Saddle-coil flowmeter.
Electromagnetic flowmeters for fast reactors 47
field plane five diameters upstream from the measur- promising but initial accuracies would need to be
ing electrodes the change in output signal of the improved.
flowmeter was negligible. The effect on the fiowmeter
was also negligible when a venturi orifice was placed
2. FLUX-DISTORTION FLOWMETERS
six diameters away.
Thatcher (1971) discusses the derivation of the Introduction
field sweeping correction factor. The assumptions The basic principle of this type of meter is that the
made about the magnetic field are apparently distortion of the magnetic field due to sweeping by a
acceptable for the small amount of field distortion moving conductor may be sensed by a search coil
which is experienced by the saddle-coil flowmeter. or other means and used as a flow signal. Although
But, as Thatcher points out, they are inadequate for a device of this kind was originally patented by
gross field distortion where substantial departures Lehde and Lang (1948), and in one example proposed
from linearity are expected. for ship speed measurement, its early use was mainly
Komori et al. (1974) have also discussed the in ionized gases. The magnetic Reynolds number
performance of a flowmeter of a similar design to must be of order 0.1 or greater to obtain adequate
the one just described. They give calculated values signals. This occurs in the high speed flow of ionized
of magnetic field distribution for the saddle-coil gas and was exploited for this purpose by Lin et al.
type of winding. Their results using dry calibration (1958), Pain and Smy (1960) and Cowley (1961). One
(deducing the velocity-voltage relationship from feature is that the output signal has a similar
measurement of magnetic field only) do not appear dependence on both velocity and conductivity and
to have given high accuracy. They also discuss the these authors were mainly interested in measuring
use of more than one pair of electrodes as a means of the latter. Meyer (1961) also discussed its use for
obtaining an integrated signal less sensitive to flow conductivity measurement at the skin of a missile as
profile distortion and they consider Shercliff's (1962) it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. Fuhs in a
two-dimensional weight function plot. number of papers (1964) developed the idea of a
The use of a modified distribution to give a more conductivity/velocity probe.
uniform weight function has been discussed at Mayer (1964) patented a flowmeter which used the
length by Bevir (1971c). He has also considered the change of inductance of the applied field windings
effect of conducting walls. Since the saddle-coil resulting from the flow. Cowley (1965) analysed a
flowmeter approximates a long flowmeter it would device for flow measurement either for installation
be an interesting exercise to optimize the field dis- in the wall of a duct or across the duct in an aerofoil-
tribution using Bevir's approach. The use of multiple section capsule. He examined the effects of high
electrodes or large electrodes are possibilities which values of Rm and a skin effect parameter uo~a z
could be explored further. where ~ is the fluid permeability, a the fluid con-
Another interesting direction for future develop- ductivity, ,o the excitation frequency for the field and
ment is in shaping the magnetic field in such a way a is a typical dimension.
that with a short field a linear signal is retained at Baker (1969) analysed a design in whichthe field
high Rm values by positioning the electrodes down- was produced by two concentric opposed coils
stream. This idea is hinted at by Meshii and Ford spaced axially along a circular pipe, external to the
(1969) and the possibility is further indicated by a pipe, and field sweeping was sensed by an axial Hall
diagram in Thatcher's (1971) paper showing the effect probe midway between these coils. At low
change in induced voltage for an axial array of values of R,, the response was found to be linear and
electrodes. Turner (1960) had earlier tried out this for a certain spacing of the coils it could be shown
idea with some success and it is rather surprising that to be almost insensitive to flow profile. This work
no developments have taken place so far. was extended (Baker, 1970b) to allow for higher
Further work might also be useful on the response values of R,, although it was shown there that
time of large flowmeters (Griffin, 1971). This author linearity persists for the optimum design, to values
describes experiments using an aluminium cylinder. of R,, .--, 5. This work was primarily concerned with
The results indicated a fast response. d.c. fields. Apart from the magnetometer flowmeter
In a recent report (Raptis and Forster, 1975) to be discussed later, interest for reactor applications
experiments are described in which a cross-correla- has been directed towards the a.c. version, the eddy-
tion technique was used with a permanent magnet current flow sensor.
flowrneter and two pairs of electrodes to provide an Popper et al. (1967) saw a number of advantages
in-service meter calibration. This technique looks in using this flowraeter in the Fast Flux Test Facility
48 Rc~ C. BAg~a
and additional advantages if further developed. both primary and secondary coils. It is then possible
Apart from those common to electromagnetic flow- to deduce from the reciprocity principle the second-
meters there was the compact size; the satisfactory ary voltages resulting from fluid motion.
construction; large a.c. signals; sufficient transient As a result of his analysis (described in more
response, and no necessity for ferromagnetic detail in Wiegand (1969)) he obtained operating
materials. However, calibration was likely to be frequencies which gave peak signals. By operating at
sensitive to velocity profile and temperature (because such a peak the maximum signal would be obtained
of conductivity changes). The electronics were also and temperature errors reduced. He also gave curves
considered complex. showing the variation of signal with Reynolds
number. This is a result of the changing profile. It
Eddy-current flow-through type fiowmeter was found that signals increase with Reynolds
Wiegand (1976) discussed a version in which the number which is intuitively reasonable since the
coils are outside the tube, the sodium flowing signal will be more affected by velocity near to the
through, rather than around, the coils (Fig. 9). It was pipe wall than elsewhere, and this is increased pro-
portionally with increased Reynolds number.
Wiegand chose to analyse a five-coil version of the
flowmeter, the two additional end coils being
primary coils. This device was tested (Wiegand and
Michels, 1969) first by using an alumininm rod. The
agreement was very good. The errors in the sodium
loop tests were higher (about 10~) but peak
response position was fairly well confirmed. The
errors seem to have been adequately explained by
test and design problems, but could also have
resulted from anomalous velocity profiles. One
DUCT
major problem experienced in this work was due to
Fig. 9. Eddy-current flow-through type flowrneter. imbalance in the secondary coils. This was a par-
ticular problem at low flow rates. If the dry test
expected to give better coil/fluid coupling. Wiegand's agreement which they achieved is an indication of
analysis of this device made the following assump- the prediction accuracy, then the authors suggest
that calibration may not be required.
tions.
Feng et al. (1975) describe a finite difference
(1) The axial components of the magnetic field relaxation method for the analysis of this meter
within the fluid at the ends of the primary coil is using complex notation for quhdrature signals. They
one-half of that at the centre of a long thin solenoid also conclude that if the velocity across the pipe is
with equivalent current-turns per unit length and to be measured with reasonable accuracy a low
equivalent fluid conditions. frequency should be used (5 kHz).
(2) The secondary coils are sufficiently long and
sufficiently close to the primary that essentially all Eddy-current probe-type flow sensor
the flux in the fluid, which issues from the ends of Popper et al. (1967) in their review of flow
the primary coil, threads through the surfaces of the measurement techniques discussed a device of this
fluid within the lengths of the secondary coils. That type. One possible design is illustrated by Fig. 10.
is, a negligible amount of the primary flux reaches In this form it comprises one central and two outer
the far ends of the secondary coils. field or primary coils which excite an alternating
(3) If an a.c. current is made to flow in the magnetic field around the probe. The probe is
secondary coils, the resulting eddy-currents in the inserted coaxially into a duct and the sodium
fluid within the secondary coils are one half of those flowing through the annulus between the probe and
within a long thin solenoid of equivalent current- the duct wall sweeps the field downstream. Coaxial
turns per unit length. with and between the primary coils are two balanced
search or secondary coils. With no flow their induced
(4) The velocity profile in the fluid is axisym-
voltages exactly balance. But when flow distorts the
metric. magnetic field, the induced signals in the search coils
With these assumptions Wiegand obtained the are unbalanced and the imbalance is used as a flow
force on the fluid when alternating currents flow in signal.
Electromagnetic flowmetcrs for fast reactors 49
The ocffichmt matrix resulting from the solution There is a discrepancy between the two sets of values,
of this set o f finite-differenoc equations is solved for numerical and exact, of as much as 20~o. Some
each time step substituting from the previous step likely reasons for this arc the coarseness of the lattice,
in the term containing ~'O~sT. Although the solution the finite extent of the lattice (increasing the error at
takes place at each time step, the matrix m a y be low frequencies) and the simple time stepping
set up once only and part o f the Gaussian elimina- procedure. The lattice is not easily adjusted as the
tion procedure also need be done once only. The actual duct geometry must fall at acceptable lattice
values of ~, are calculated for a series of times and positions and computer storage adds a further
they are found to converge to a sinusoidal repeating restraint. Shorter time steps will increase computing
pattern. The values may then be used to obtain the time. In the values shown in Fig. 14 the lattice
secondary signal. The time derivative may be dimensions were 20 35 and there were 32 time
obtained as steps per cycle.
NON-CONDUCTING
,"0 NON-MAGNETIC
MATERIAL
, l PM~Dh~E
-0.4
x F'2
-oli
-01
I l l l t l I I I I I I I I I I I i i I
-~ -40 40 oO
Distance of bubble f r o m nnJd plane, m m
Fig. 15. Signal variation for the passage of a small bubble past the probe.
Electromagnetic flowmeters for fast reactors 53
X IF'0-21 .4
~ ~owbgoal,nme
-8(:~ -40 0 40 80
Distanceof bol:~tefrom mid I~ane~mm
Fig. 16. Signal variation for the passage of a large bubble past the probe.
F F~
xlO"=
O3
0.3
OP
02
ExaCt Theory
0 Numerical Values
"0~
0.1
I I t I I I I
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I I t I I I
Rm 100 2OO 30O aOO50O
Excitation Frequency, Hz
Fig. 17. Response of probe to increasing magnetic
Reynolds number. Fig, 18. Linearized finite difference solution compared
with exact theory.
F F
x 10"2
x I(3-:
0 -3 0-3
02-- 02
~ Uniform profile
i,
100 200
Excitation
300 400 500
Frequency, Hz
Fig. 19. Effect of core length and pocket on probe response.
t
100
I
200
I I I
300 400 500
E x c i t a t i o n Frequency. HZ
0.6
1 0 -2
0.3
-06f
Fig. 21. Probe response for a step change of velocity.
where jo, Eo and .40 are components of current where m = (1 - k')/(l + k') /
(38)
density, electric field and vector potential in the
circumferential direction. Thus for the interaction of
and k' x/(l - k2). /
one ring on another due to frequency we need to With this information we may now set up the
compute Ao. If the effect is due to flow then field of any array of current rings. First however we
Jo = ~rvB,. (32) consider a simplification of the solution which
reduces the amount of computer storage required.
In this ease we need to know the value of B, the
radial component of the magnetic field. These two
functions are given by Smythe (1968) as: Perturbationapproxhnation
In Section 3 it was shown that for velocities of the
Ao=rtk,r] [(1 - ' ~ ) K - E 1 (33) magnitude to be expected in fast reactor flows the
approximation may be made that the signal is
#1 z directly proportional to velocity. If we make use of
B, = 2"n r[(a + r) 2 + z2] ~ that approximation here, we obtain a considerable
[ a2+r2+z2E] simplification of the problem. It now becomes
-- K + (a- r) 2 + z 2 (34) possible to solve for the field without flow first, and
then to use this solution to obtain the small pertur-
where K and E are complete elliptic integrals of the bation due to flow. The advantages of this are that
first and second kind, I is the loop current, a is the both fields individually have a kind of symmetry while
ring radius, r and z give the position of field measure- the combined field does not. We are therefore
ment relative to the ring and enabled to solve for one half of the axis only and
thereby reduce the computer storage. We also obtain
4ar the output signal directly rather than as the small
k2 = (a + r) 2 d- 22. (35)
difference of two large quantities. We now set up the
The elliptic integrals may be calculated from form of the current ring interaction as a series of
infinite series given by Dwight (1961) in the form equations.
7~ + m)
K=..~(I The unperturbedfield
I 12 12.3 2 12"32"52 1 For the following discussion reference should be
l + ~m" + ~-~m" + 22.42.62 m6 + . . . made to Fig. 22 which illustrates the current ring
interaction. In this diagram two fluid current rings
(36) P and Q are shown and their symmetrical counter-
E= 2(1
- -+ m) parts P' and Q'. R and R ' are symmetrical primary
field coil rings and S and S' symmetrical secondary
m2 12 12"32 1
I + - ~ + ~-~.42 m " + ~ rn6 + . . . (37) search coil rings. We consider first the current
generated in Q by all the current rings P and P', R
56 Roo~a C. BAgvat
,~, = - ~.(co,+ co,.)n"
C~
D p,
0 - ~(co, + co,.)z~/', (4o)
p D
O []
SODIUM
where (?or and Coy, give the effects of induction due
8 . = S__ C~IL$ to equations (31) and (33) of P' on Q. F o r this pur-
CORE pose the cross-sectional area of the ring Q is also used.
.-z Since the coefficients Cot and CQr, always appear
together we may replace their sum by C'op, and with
Fig. 22. Diagram of current ring interaction. C'op we can rewrite equations (39) and (40) as
1~/2 = ZC~pI + EC~, I u, (41)
and R'. I f we use superscripts o to indicate in-phase P R
components o f the current in these rings and s/2 to I~ = - ~Copl~/2 - ~Co,I~/'. (42)
indicate quadrature components, we obtain:
These form a set of simultaneous equations in
I~'~ = E ( c o ~ + Co,.)~ +
P unknowns I and I "/2 which may be written in
(Cox + C o , . ) ~ , (39) matrix form as:
(43)
and it is apparent that the square matrix is made up It is now possible to treat this matrix equation as
o f two identical quadrants and two unit bands, one a pair of simultaneous equations in matrices, the
positive and one negative. Replacing the vector solution of which permits us to compute the currents
matrices on the right by - - R and - - R "/" we obtain from a matrix one quarter the original size and
consequently to re4uce the required computer
storage. We achieve this as follows:
1 f ,o 1 I "/2
C'P/" --
+ C'l =
I =
- R ,
- R "/z
(45)
(46)
Premultiplying equation (46) by C' and adding the
-- I R (44) result to equation (45) gives
R,/2 (CC' + I)1=12 = - (R + C'R"/2). (47)
Electromagnetic flowmeters for fast reactors 57
Having obtained I"/2 by the solution of this equation The solution of this follows the same course as used
it is then possible to substitute back into equation in equations (44), (45) and (46). Thus we obtain the
(46) to obtain I . set of currents due to the flow perturbation and we
By this procedure the values of 1 and I ~/2 for the can compute the signal induced in the secondary
unperturbed field have been found. It should be noted coils due to them as:
that these values are symmetrical with respect to the
mid-plane, so that current rings positioned at V "/" = 4 n a ~ ~ ( S s p - Ssr)I (53)
symmetrical points upstream and downstream will
have current circulation on the same sense. We now V = -- 4 t t a ~ ( $ s ~ -- Ss~,)I~,/2 (54)
$ P
proceed to apply the same procedure to obtain the
flow perturbation. But in this case, although sym- where J"ttt/2 and V are the induced voltages, a is the
metrically placed points will have current rings of the secondary coil radius, and S is obtained from
same size, they will now be of opposite sign. The equations (30) and (33). The 4 includes a factor of
reason for thb difference is that the symmetry of the two to allow for the two secondary coils.
unperturbed rings stemmed from the symmetry of This concludes the discussion of the theory and
the primary coil currents, whereas the excitation for we now present some results which show the
the perturbed field is current rings generated by the accuracy of this method.
interaction of the flow with the radial component of
the unperturbed magnetic field, and it is this which
Test of accuracy
caused the sign change.
The output signal was computed in terms of F
which is defined by
The flow-perturbed field
For the perturbation currents we replace equa- V = 8npn~aIF. (28)
tions (39) and (40) by
The array of current rings used in the computation
I~/2 = ~(Cop- Cop.)l is shown in Fig. 23. Although conductivity and
velocity could be varied for each ring, it was assumed
+ y'
P and R
(Do + (48) that the velocity in the fluid was uniform for these
I~ = - ~ ( C o p - CQr)I~,/2
.z?, = -
P tests and that the conductivity was uniform within
+ E D,pIO (51) each region with the values given in Fig. 23, since
Pandg
these were the conditions for Thatcher's values.
giving
One hundred rings were used, of axial length 4 ram.
The results of this computation are shown by the
I I (52)
circles in Fig. 24 and 25 which provide a comparison
with Thatcher's exact theory shown by the lines.
Fig. 24 gives the response for varying frequency
when the oofls are contained in a conducting pocket,
58 ROGER C. BAKER
while Fig. 25 shows the same but for a flowmeter discrepancy which seems most likely is that the
without a pocket and with fluid surrounding the restricted region of conducting material which has
coils in to a radius equal to the radius of the inside been used, while adequate at higher frequencies at
of the pocket. The radial dimensions of current which the field has less penetration, is inadequate in
rings for the results in Fig. 24 was 1.55 mm for core Fig. 24 at low frequencies since for this graph the
rings, 1.8 mm for pocket rings and 2.0 mm thick for fluid in Thatcher's solution was supposed to extend
fluid rings. For Fig. 25 all rings had a radial dimen- to infinity.
sion of 1.55 mm.
The agreement in Fig. 25 is very satisfactory, but Notes on the solution
that in Fig. 24 is less so. The explanation of this
The extent of the current rings in the z-direction is
quite limited. In order to test the effect of this, a
0"3 fluid RnnB]us USing only four layers radially, again
F of 1.55 ram thickness, was analysed first with nine
x ld: Exact Theory axial rings and then with fourteen axial rings and it
Coml~JteO Values
was found that the signal change was only about
O
0.3%.
02 The program was found to be highly sensitive to
the arrangement of the current rings. Large cross-
sectional area rings caused the program to give
spurious results. A similar problem also occurred
O under certain conditions when some coils with low
0"1
conductivity were used. The reason for this appeared
to lie in the pivotting procedure used in the Gaussian
elimination when solving the matrix equation. Since
in any row of the matrix the elements around the
leading diagonal predominate, it is possible by
pivotting to cause the matrix to become ill-condi-
500 1000 2000 tioned. It has been found that one way to overcome
Excitation Frequency, HZ
this problem is to arrange the matrix rows in the
Fig. 24. Cm'rent ring model compared with exact theory order of decreasing product of area and conductivity:
for pocketed flowmeter (non-magnetic core). Another way around the problem is to omit the
pivotting routine from the solution to avoid up-
setting the inherent physical order of the matrix.
03--
1 0 CI o Ro
c2 C3 --OI-- _0
-- -- R~/2 (57)
cl ---1- -7-
0 0 2 C3 J i=/ r./2
60 Rotter C. BAr~R
Group, Risley, Warrington, Cheshire, England. I am Forster G. A. (1971) Performance of permanent magnet
grateful to UKAEA for permission to publish, to Mr. flow-through-type sodium fiowmeters in EBR-II
E. Duncombe for his interest and support and to Mr. G. instrumented subassemblies. IEEE Trans. NS 18(1) 363.
Thatcher for many useful discussions. Sections 1 and 2 Forster G. A. (1973) Long-term stability of Alnico 5 and
could not have been written without the co-operation and 8 Magnets at 700 to 1200F. Argonne National Lab.
patience of Miss Edna Archer and her colleagues in the Ill (USA) Report No. ANI.,-CF-73-16, November, 29p.
Mechanical Engineering Library at Imperial College and Fuhs A. E. (1964a) Techniques for obtaining the elec-
I acknowledge my indebtedness to them. I am also grateful trical conductivity/velocity profile. Electromagnetic
to Mr. R. Puddy for producing the excellent diagrams. Aspects of Hypersonic Flight, Proceedings o f Second
Plasma Sheath Symposium, Ed. Rotman W. Moore H.
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