A Novel Contactless Flow Rate Measurement Device for Weakly Conducting Fluids Based on Lorentz Force Velocimetry

Abstract

This paper presents an improved experimental setup for the contactless flow rate measurement in a weakly electrically conducting fluid on the base of Lorentz force velocimetry (LFV) and discusses the measurement results. The new setup embodies major improvements over the setup reported in Wegfraß et al. (Appl Phys Lett 100:194103, 2012). This measurement setup consists of a newly designed fluid channel with well defined flow profiles – a plug profile at the inlet and quasi parabolic profile at the outlet of the test section. Another improvement is the force measurement system which is based on electromagnetic force compensation (EMC). Furthermore an optimized Halbach array is used as a magnet system. The results of our measurements confirm the feasibility of LFV in a model fluid (salt water) with conductivities less than 10 Sm^− 1 and demonstrate that the optimized magnet system increases the measurement signal. The used force measurement system had to be particularly calibrated for this purpose, so that in combination with the new magnet system design a three times higher signal resolution for the fluid velocity under laboratory conditions was achieved.