Experimental study on electrode potential drop in liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic generator

Experimental investigation of electrode potential voltage drop in liquid metal magnetohydrodynamic(LMMHD) power generator is presented in the paper. Resistance between two electrodes were measured by micro-ohmmeter with 0~20 mOmega range in different apart distance of electrodes and contact surface area. The results show that the contact resistance between liquid metal and copper electrode is very complex, it is impossible to calculate the contact resistance by a formula. As a example, the contact resistance of concave electrodes, distance of which is 30 mm, changes from 5 muOmega to 28 muOmega when the contact area varies from 100 mm² to 800 mm².