THEORY AND ENGINEERING APPLICATION OF A PRACTICAL THERMOELECTRIC ELECTROMAGNETIC (TEM) PUMP

摘要

Calculations show that thermoelectricity can have a practical plover application to the electromagnetic pumping of liquid metal coolant through a nuclear reactor and its associated primary heat exchanger with the thermoelectric elements and circuit as an integral part of the exchanger. Here the basic theory of such a device is developed, including the parasitic circulation of current within each fluid metal channel, the varying temperature difference over the length of the exchanger, and the modification of theory consequent to having the fluid metal in pipes. Possible causes of instability are discussed and how to attack their analysis is indicated, but no analysis is made. Die theory is applied to a specific engineering design.