Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

We present a novel design of a contactless flowmeter using a single cylindrical permanent magnet magnetised perpendicularly to its axis, about which it can freely rotate, and placed close to a duct with a liquid metal flow. The electromagnetic torque on the magnet caused by the liquid metal flow sets the magnet into rotation. The equilibrium rotation rate, which is attained at a vanishing net electromagnetic torque on the magnet, depends only on the flowrate and the geometry of the system while it is independent of the electromagnetic torque itself. A laboratory model of such a flowmeter has been built and tested at a liquid metal flow.