COMPOSITE-STRUCTURE ELECTRODE FOR OPEN-CYCLE MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC GENERATOR

摘要

A composite electrode for use in the channel of an MHD converter comprises an assembly of plates fabricated of refractory material coated with layers of either noble or inert refractory metals and associated with a watercooled metal box. The plates 1, Fig. 1, which meet in planes parallel to the plane of the drawing, may be made of stabilized zirconium oxide blended if necessary with a doping agent for enhanced thermionic emissivity, or made of the zirconate of strontium, of barium or of calcium to which is added monoclinic zirconia. All the faces, except AB (face AB being subjected to the hot gases), of each plate, are coated first with a dispersion of noble or inert refractory metal which is adhered to the surface by heat treatment at a temperature above 850 C. and then with an electrolytic deposition of a noble or inert refractory metal or alloy. Each plate is then clad, to the height CD, with a thin metal foil of the same composition. Preferred metals are platinum, rhodium, iridium, or alloys of these, and thicknesses are of the order of one of two hundredths of a millimetre. The electrode plates thus prepared are joined together by brazing, with heat treatment at a temperature above 1500 C. The assembly of plates is then adjustably clamped by angle bars 3 to a box 4 of copper or copper alloy which has had brazed to it a stainless metal alloy 2 (e.g. stainless steel or nickel steel) end securing means are also provided. Inlet 8 and outlet 9 of box 4 serve both for circulation of cooling water and as lead-out ducts for current-collecting cables. Fig. 7 shows part of an MHD duct in cross-section with an electrode 12 according to the invention and with insulating walls 13.