Demonstration of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer Performance in Fluid Flow Sensing: Development of Sensor Performance Model of Microwave Cavity Flow Meter for Advanced Reactor High Temperature Fluids

Heifetz, Alexander; Koehl, E. R.; Fang, Tianyang; Saniie, Jafar; Bakhtiari, Sasan

doi:10.2172/1861797

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…A water loop was constructed for proof-of-principle demonstration of flow sensing in water at room temperature [11][12][13]. Schematic diagram of the flow loop, in which fluid is circulating counterclockwise, is shown in Figure 9.…”

Section: Development Of Flow Demonstration Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To enhance visibility of signal during frequency spectrum measurements of the microwave cavity, a baseline removal algorithm was developed to compensate for characteristics of non-ideal microwave electronic components [12,13]. The waveguides, circulator, and RF cables all contribute to the large attenuation and uneven gain of the frequency sweep.…”

Section: Baseline Removal Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We are investigating a microwave cavity-based transducer for high-temperature fluid flow measurement for in-core sensing [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. This transducer, described in details in Section 2, is a hollow metallic cavity, which can be fabricated from stainless steel, and as such is expected to be resilient to radiation, high temperature and corrosive environment of SFR and MSCR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Second Annual Report on Development of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer for Fluid Flow Sensing

Heifetz¹,

Carrel²,

Fang³

et al. 2022

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Section: Development Of Flow Demonstration Setupmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Baseline Removal Algorithmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Second Annual Report on Development of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer for Fluid Flow Sensing

Heifetz¹,

Carrel²,

Fang³

et al. 2022

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“…We are developing a microwave cavity-based transducer as an alternative approach to hightemperature fluid flow measurements [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. This transducer is a hollow metallic cavity fabricated from stainless steel, a material resilient to radiation, high temperature and corrosive environment of SFR and MSCR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Microwave Resonant Cavity Transducer Recalibration Procedures

Heifetz,

Fang,

Saniie

et al. 2023

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We are investigating a microwave resonant cavity transducer for flow sensing in the vessel of a high temperature fluid advanced reactor (AR), such as a molten salt cooled reactor (MSCR) or a sodium fast reactor (SFR). This transducer is a hollow metallic cylindrical cavity, with one of the flat walls of the cylinder flexible enough to undergo microscopic deflection due to dynamic fluid pressure. Membrane deflection leads to a shift in the microwave resonant frequency, which can be detected with a spectrum analyzer.We have performed a preliminary proof-of-principle test of flow sensing in high temperature liquid sodium in environment. The liquid sodium setup consists of a cylindrical vessel with a center feed line, where a transducer inserted through the top cap of the vessel measures velocity of the impinging liquid jet. For this test, we have developed a cylindrical resonator, which was machined from stainless steel 316 and electroplated with silver on the interior surfaces. Inner diameter of the cylindrical cavity is 22.2 mm, and the thin wall is approximately 200µm thick. The cavity was excited through a WR-42 waveguide through a subwavelength hole on the side of the wall of the cylinder in the TE011 mode with resonant frequency f ≈ 17.8GHz. Sodium flow rate sensing study was performed in a liquid sodium vessel at 340 o C temperature and ambient pressure. The flow rate was changed by varying sodium pump power, and a frequency shift of several hundred KHz was observed.From the measurements, we observed significant scatter in high temperature liquid sodium at low flow velocity values. Our hypothesis is that this is caused by temperature drift in the liquid, which results in thermal expansion of the cavity and a drift in the resonator frequency. In this report, we investigate temperature dependence of the resonant frequency through development of analytic models and preliminary analysis of experimental data. In addition, we develop a procedure for compensation for temperature drift during flow sensing.

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“…We are investigating a microwave cavity-based transducer for high-temperature fluid flow measurement for in-core sensing [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. This transducer is a hollow metallic cavity, which can be fabricated from stainless steel, and as such is expected to be resilient to radiation, high temperature and corrosive environment of SFR and MSCR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%