Magnetohydrodynamic Lightweight Channel Development.

摘要

A lightweight, high performance MHD channel and diffuser were designed, built, and tested. The hardware was designed for testing with toluene and oxygen. The design power level of 200 kW dc was obtained during the 125 tests. The MHD channel design was a diagonal conducting wall generator with calcia stabilized zirconia electrodes and a filament wound epoxy coated fiberglass outer shell. The diffuser design utilized thin wall copper construction with external cooling tubes. These designs resulted in a significant reduction of the masses of the channel and diffuser. The masses of the channel and diffuser were 40 kg and 24 kg, respectively, which compared favorably to previous channels and diffusers of similar performance characteristics with masses of 160 kg and 150 kg, respectively. The novel design features of the channel construction technique included the use of a filament wound, epoxy coated fiberglass structural shell, the presence of an RTV layer to provide the pressure seal, and the minimization of the use of the copper material in the electrode frames. This fabrication procedure combined to provide a lightweight channel capable of withstanding sustained operation under a wide variety of operating conditions.