Application of the temperature correlation method to measuring the flow rate of liquid sodium

I. Kolesnichenko¹ - A. Mamykin¹ - E. Golbraikh² - A. Pavlinov¹

¹ Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics of the Ural Branch, RAS, Perm, Russia
² Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel

Abstract
Measurement of liquid metal flow properties, such as flow rate, flow pattern, degree of turbulization, is a challenging task due to the opaqueness, high temperatures (e.g., 1500^°C for liquid steel or 500^°C for liquid sodium in nuclear reactors) and corrosiveness of those fluids. This article discusses some features of the temperature correlation method application to measuring the flow rate of liquid sodium. A magnetic obstacle was used as a source of temperature pulsations. The flow pattern has been studied numerically and the efficiency of the method is confirmed experimentally. Figs 8, Refs 18.