4th International Workshop on Measuring Techniques for Liquid Metal Flows (MTLM2024)

including Summer School on Sodium handling, monitoring and instrumentation

2024 May 27 - 29, Dresden, Germany

(Supported by ESFR-SIMPLE, Horizon Europe)

Scope:

Liquid metal cooling and liquid metal targets are innovative concepts to enhance efficiency and safety of the next generation IV nuclear reactors e.g., fast reactor cooling by sodium or lead and the use of lead-bismuth as target in a transmutation system. The safe and reliable operation of liquid metal systems requires adequate measuring systems and control units, both for the liquid metal single-phase flow as well as for bubble-laden liquid metal two-phase flows. Moreover, appropriate measuring techniques are an inevitable necessity to monitor, control and optimize industrial processes in metallurgy, casting, crystal growth etc.

Measurements in opaque liquid metal flows still represent a challenging task as commercial measuring systems are not available for such fluids. Measurement techniques are needed to characterize flow velocities, heat fluxes, the distribution and motion of gas bubbles and solid particles, free surface levels, void fractions, etc. Specific problems in industrial processes arise from the high process temperatures of metallic melts and related chemical reactions and corrosion.

This workshop constitutes a platform for latest developments and novel approaches in the field of measuring techniques and signal processing methods for liquid metal flows. The spectrum of measuring techniques is wide open, covering, for instance, local probes in direct contact with the melt, ultrasonic techniques, inductive methods based on magnetic field measurements and radiation techniques using X-rays, Gamma-rays or neutrons.  

A key issue is the applicability of the techniques to industrial relevant processes such as nuclear engineering, metallurgy, casting, solidification or crystal growth.

The goal of the workshop is to assess the state-of-the-art in the respective field, identify the demand and requirements arising from various applications, bring together developers of different kinds of flow diagnostics and potential users from industry, research institutes and universities to stimulate discussions and trigger new innovative developments and co-operations.

Visits to the liquid metal laboratories and hands-on training actions are possible and will be planed depending on the number of interested participants.

Topics

• Measurements of flow rates and local velocities
• Global measurement of turbulent flows, flow mapping, flow tomography
• Measurements of temperature distributions in metallic melts
• Detection of gas bubble and solid particles, flow regimes, bubble properties, etc. in multi-phase flows
• Level detection
• Gas sensors
• Reactor instrumentation
• Sensor development & Signal processing

Schedule:

Submission of abstracts                                                                              February 29, 2024 March 15, 2024

Notification of acceptance                                                                           March 15, 2024

Preliminary programme                                                                               April 01, 2024

Registration open                                                                                         April 01, 2024 March 05, 2024

Regular registration closes                                                                           April 30, 2024

(Late registration including a 50€ fee)                                                           after May 01, 2024

Conference venue:

MTLM2024 will be held at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR, How to find us). The HZDR campus is located approximately 20 km northeast of the historic centre of Dresden, the capital of Saxony, well known for its cultural and historical highlights. A large number of hotels in a wide range of price categories are available in prime city locations. Participants are asked to make their own bookings. Suitable accomodations can be found e.g. via the city council of Dresdens webpage. A central bus transfer to HZDR and back to the city centre will be arranged. The pick-up location(s) will be selected to be most convenient for all participants.

Conference fee:

Regular fee      300 €

Student fee      200 €

Additional        100€ for the participation in the summer school.

ESFR-SIMPLE project participants are exempted of the conference fee.

Submission of abstracts: closed

The MS-Word template for the (maximum) one-page abstracts of workshop contributions can be found here for download.

The abstract submission is closed. More than 20 scientific contributions were received. Each contribution will receive a time slot of total 20 min (15 min presentation + 5 min discussion).

Registration:

The link to the external registration portal can be found here.

Proceedings:

The publication of workshop proceedings with full papers of the contributions is not planned. A book of abstracts will be distributed and the presentations will be published on the workshop web-page.

General information:

Any questions related to the workshop should be addressed by e-mail to: mtlm2024@hzdr.de

Do not hesitate to contact us if you need further information. We are looking forward to welcome you in Dresden!

Organizing committee:

Sven Eckert, Thomas Wondrak, Max Sieger - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf