Miniature DC electromagnetic pumps of molten lead and sodium to support development of Gen-IV nuclear reactors

摘要

This work developed designs of submerged, dual-regions, miniature DC-EM pumps for circulating molten lead and liquid sodium at <= 500 degrees C without active cooling for use in ex-pile and in-pile test loops to support of ma-terials and fuel developments for Gen-IV sodium and molten lead fast nuclear reactor. These pumps with two pumping regions are 57 mm, 66.8 mm, 95.4 mm, and 133.5 mm in diameter and have two Alnico 5 permanent magnets with Hiperco-50 pole pieces for focusing the magnetic field lines in the flow duct. The Equivalent Circuit Model (ECM) linked to the Finite Element Method Magnetics (FEMM) software in MATLAB platform calculated the pumps characteristics for a wide range of parameters. Also determined are the pumps dimensions for the highest cumulative pumping power and peak efficiency. These dimensions are the height, width, and length of the flow duct, the thickness of the Alnico magnets, the length of current electrodes, and the separation distance between the two pumping regions. For molten lead, the pumping power increases from 368 W to 728 W, and the peak efficiency from 14.7 to 31.6 with increased pump diameter from 57 mm to 133.5 mm. For liquid so-dium, both the pumping power and peak efficiency are higher, increasing from 392 W to 767 W and from 44.3 to 51.2, respectively, with increased pump diameter from 57 mm to 133.5 mm.