Design development and testing of mutual inductance type level sensor for molten lead-lithium alloy

摘要

Continuous level measurement of molten Pb-Li in various Pb-Li containing tanks is a challenge owing to the high operating temperature of molten Pb-Li and its corrosive nature. A mutual inductance type level sensor has been designed and developed for molten Pb-Li applications, based on knowledge and experience gained form the development of similar level sensor for liquid sodium system. Appropriate temperature compensation technique has been implemented to compensate for the temperature effects on Pb-Li electrical conductivity for the operating temperature range. The testing of level sensor has been performed in solid Aluminium as well as Stainless Steel blocks, followed by molten Pb-Li at 300 degrees C. In all the cases, the temperature compensated output of MI probe has been found to exhibit adequate sensitivity and vary linearly with the change in level of the conducting medium. In the case of molten Pb-Li at 300 degrees C, the testing was carried out in reference to a conductivity level switch, and the accuracy was found to be within 2% of full scale.