Liquid Metal Two-Phase Flows
Two-phase flows play an important role in a number of technological processes in
metallurgical and chemical industries. Gas bubbles are injected into liquid
baths in order to stirr the fluid, because often times a better homogeneization
(temperature, concentration) or the generation of a distinct flow structure
is desired.
One has to look for suitable methods to control the properties of such kind of flows.
The utilization of magnetic fields seems to be an attractive way to affect the spatial
distribution of bubbles or the momentum transfer between the gas and the liquid.
An actual example for the technical application of a mercury/helium bubbly flow is the
concept of a liquid metal target for the Common
European Project ESS (European Spallation
Source). The controlled addition of tiny gas bubbles to the target flow should
enhance the compressibility of the fluid to diminish the pressure wave effect arising from
the interaction between the target and short period proton pulses with a high energy impact.
Gas injection experiments in mercury and InGaSn, respectively, revealed some surprising
features of the bubble formation process inside a liquid
characterised by a high surface tension. Consequently, the practical solution to generate
tiny bubbles with a diameter less than 1 mm at high gas flow rates of more than 1000 l/h is
not straigthforward.
The interest of our investigations have been focussed on the following subjects:
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