Compact serpentine high head liquid metal electromagnetic pump with dual linear Halbach array

Abstract

In this study, a novel compact dual linear Halbach array serpentine electromagnetic pump (DLHAS-EMP) for liquid metal is proposed. By optimizing the structural parameters of the dual linear Halbach array (DLHA), a 7-channel DLHAS-EMP with a channel height of 3 mm was designed and fabricated. The pump performance of the DLHAS-EMP was evaluated by numerical and experimental investigations, respectively. The measured results indicate that the pump has an internal resistance of only 0.5 mΩ and can provide a maximum pressure head of 67.0 kPa @ 50 A and a maximum flow rate of 1.0 L/min @ 50 A with a volume of only 49.7 cm³. The simulation results show that the performance of the DLHAS-EMP can be effectively regulated by adjusting the height and number of channels. Reducing the height and adding more channels increases the pressure head, while increasing the height and decreasing the number of channels improves the flow rate accordingly. For example, the DLHAS-EMP achieves an impressive static pressure head of 186.8 kPa @ 50 A with a volume of 72.6 cm³ when the channel height is 2 mm and there are 11 channels. On this basis, an empirical formula was developed to predict the static pressure head of the DLHAS-EMP, with a correction factor k ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. Compared to previously reported electromagnetic pumps, the DLHAS-EMP demonstrates superior performance and is particularly suited to extreme heat dissipation applications involving complex microchannels and specific pumping height requirements.