Inductive level sensor: experiment and calculation

Abstract

Abstract A non-contact induction technique for registering the free sufrace position of liquid metal is studied numerically and experimentally. A localized inductive level sensor (ILS) generates an alternating magnetic field and measures the resulting magnetic field. If an electrically conductive medium appears in the sensitive area of the sensor, this field changes. In the experiment, signals from the ILS were measured for a rotating cylinder with a beveled upper boundary, for different frequencies of alternating current, supplying the sensor generating coil. A set of calibration curves was obtained, that can be used to determine the cylinder rotation angle from the signal. In the numerical simulations, the three-dimensional fields of magnetic induction were obtained. The influence of the alternating current frequency, as well as the cylinder rotation angle on the ILS measurement, was studied. Numerical simulations show that increasing current frequency results in higher ILS sensitivity. The numerical and experimental results are in agreement. The developed technique is applicable for measuring the oscillation frequency of the liquid metal free surface.