Component testing with molten salt at the TESIS:com facility

At the Thesis facility of the German Aerospace Center in Cologne first components were tested with solar salt at the so-called TESIS:com section. This includes a flexible pipe with insulation, conductivity measurement for determining filling status and freeze-thaw cycling. The flex hose underwent thermal shocks and several freeze-thaw cycles without visible damages on the outer pipe. With a prototype set-up of a conductivity measurement it was possible to detect if the pipe was filled with molten salt or not. At a slightly inclined pipe freeze-thaw cycles were performed for a section between segments filled with frozen salt to learn about the effects of melting the salt unevenly in pipes. This resulted in plastic deformation of the pipe.