Towards Quantitative Void Fraction Measurement With an Eddy Current Flowmeter for Fourth Generation Sodium Cooled Fast Reactors: A Simplified Model

We propose an experimental methodology for the purpose of quantitative void fraction measurements in fourth generation Sodium cooled fast reactors with a standard Eddy Current Flow Meter (ECFM) sensor. The methodology consists of using the technique of ellipse fit and correlate the fluctuations in the angle of inclination of this ellipse with the void fraction. This methodology is applied in this paper to an ideal configuration of periodic grooves on solid aluminium cylinder with various volumic fractions. The effects of physical parameters such as coil excitation frequency, coil current and motion have been studied. The first results show that ECFM is sensitive to void fractions between 0.3% and 6.9%. It further demonstrates that the response to void fraction is insensitive to the mean velocity of the two-phase medium.