Calibration of a Lorentz force flowmeter by using numerical modeling

• Numerical modeling is used to calibrate a Lorentz force flowmeter.
• Velocity distribution in laminar flow should be included in numerical calibration procedure.
• In turbulent flows, numerical calibration can be performed for a solid conductor.

A Lorentz force flowmeter is a device used for contactless measurements of the flow rate in liquid metals at high temperatures. Application of this device in practice requires a calibration procedure. In this paper, numerical modeling is used to calibrate this flowmeter in different flow conditions. Laminar and turbulent flow effects on the calibration curve are analyzed for liquid aluminum flow in closed and open channels. The flow damping caused by the Lorentz forces is also analyzed for laminar and turbulent flows. Numerical computations including flow are compared to the simplified case of a solid conductor moving at constant rate. The computations performed for laminar flows in open and closed channels, show significant flow effects on the Lorentz forces as comparing to the case of solid body computations. In the case of high Reynolds number turbulent flows in closed and open channels, the results are very close to solid body computations. In conclusion, the flow effects are important for the calibration procedure only for laminar flows. At high Reynolds numbers, the complex numerical models used for computing the calibration curves can be replaced by simple solid body computations.