Normal and Deteriorated Heat Transfer Under Heating Turbulent Supercritical Pressure Coolants Flows in Round Tubes

Heat transfer to a turbulent flow of supercritical pressure (SCP) fluids under intense heating conditions is considered. The problem of heat transfer deteriorating under high heat loads and the reasons of its origination are analyzed. The results of hydraulic measurements in a flow and its structure using “two pressure drop” method and sounding technique in the regimes of normal and deteriorated heat transfer are presented. The existed correlations on normal heat transfer are analyzed and assessed as to their accuracy. It is pointed out that all the correlations developed using “old” thermophysical properties existed before implementing IAWPS-97 must be corrected. Respective recommendations on this problem and the new correlation for normal heat transfer are presented.

On the Use of a Buoyancy Parameter for Distinguishing Deteriorated from Normal Heat Transfer in Upward Flows at Supercritical Pressures

An extensive analysis of two versions of a buoyancy parameter as supercritical heat transfer deterioration (DHT) identifiers was conducted for large databases obtained in carbon dioxide flowing through three electrically heated tubes with internal diameters equal to to 4.6, 8.0, and 22.0 mm and in Refrigerant R134a through an 8.0 mm tube. For the first time, buoyancy parameter profiles along each tube were considered for wide ranges of closely incremented operating conditions. The occurrence of DHT in each test section was first assessed confidently by observation of wall temperature profiles and comparison of measurements with wall temperature predictions of a correlation for normal heat transfer. The objective of this work was to determine whether a universal buoyancy parameter threshold could be used as a means for identifying DHT in a test section. It was found that correction factors were required for both parameters to account for an observed shift of the threshold for DHT occurrence, as the mass flux was changed. The resulting threshold for one of the buoyancy parameters identified correctly DHT for cases having a mass flux up to a certain value, but failed to do so for cases with a higher mass flux.

Comparison of Heat-Transfer Correlations Obtained in Supercritical-Water-Cooled Bundles

SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactor (SCWR) as one of the six Generation-IV nuclear-power-reactor concepts will have increased thermal efficiency compared to that of current Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) equipped with water-cooled reactors by operating the reactor coolant at supercritical conditions: Coolant pressure of about 25 MPa, inlet temperatures between 300–350°C, and outlet temperatures between 550–625°C. The major flow geometry inside the reactor core is the bundle flow geometry. For safe and efficient operation of an SCWR heat transfer coefficients should be calculated with minimum uncertainties. Unfortunately, the vast majority of experimental datasets were obtained in vertical bare tubes cooled with SCW. Experiments in a bundle flow geometry are even more complicated and expensive compared to that in bare tubes. Due to this very few experiments have been performed in bundles. According to the abovementioned, the vast majority of heat-transfer correlations are based on bare-tube data, and only one currently known correlation is based on a 7-element bundle cooled with SCW (the so-called, Dyadyakin and Popov correlation (1977)). Rods in this bundle are equipped with four helical ribs to enhance the heat transfer. However, the authors have not provided any dataset(s) associated with this bundle and correlation. In the current paper a number of bare-tube heat-transfer correlations obtained in SCW and the Dyadyakin and Popov correlation were compared with two datasets obtained in an annular channel with the heated central rod and 3-element bundle. The central rod in this annular channel and rods in the 3-element bundle have the same heated length as those in the 7-element bundle tested by Dyadyakin and Popov in 1977, and are also equipped with four helical ribs. The comparison showed that the Jackson correlation (2002) is the most accurate one in predicting Heat-Transfer-Coefficient (HTC) profiles in the annular channel at normal heat-transfer regime. The Dittus and Boelter correlation (1930) is the most accurate in predicting HTC profiles in the 3-element bundle at normal heat-transfer regime. No one correlation is capable to follow closely HTC profiles at the deteriorated heat-transfer regimes in both flow geometries. Aloo, it should be mentioned that bare-tube heat-transfer correlations, which have thermophysical properties based on bulk-fluid and wall temperatures, might have problems with convergence at high heat fluxes, i.e., above the heat flux at which the deteriorated heat-transfer regime starts in bare tubes.

On Calculating Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of Supercritical-Pressure Coolants

Specific features of thermophysical properties of single-phase supercritical-pressure (SCP) coolants and typical ranges of their thermodynamic state that determine heat-transfer regularities are presented. A brief analysis of the existing concepts on SCP-coolants heat transfer under turbulent flow in tube is given. Typical features of normal and deteriorated heat-transfer regimes are described. The simple classification of deteriorated heat-transfer regimes at high heat loads that make it possible to distinguish the causes and appraise a degree of heat-transfer deterioration danger is proposed. The results from the studies of the hydraulic-resistance structure under the regimes of normal and deteriorated heat transfer are considered and the conditions, when a one-dimensional (1-D) (homogeneous) flow model can be used in hydraulic calculations, are revealed. Using sounding measurements data, the interrelation between heat-transfer deterioration and radical changes in the averaged turbulent flow structure due to fluid thermal acceleration and Archimedes forces effects is analyzed. The recommendations on calculating normal heat transfer with an account of refined standards on thermophysical properties of water and carbon dioxide are presented. The review and analysis of the existing criteria for forecasting heat-transfer deterioration and assessing the boundaries of the normal heat-transfer range are given, and the correlations for describing deteriorated heat transfer are presented.

Hot Gas Ingress Estimation Methods Validation in GT Stator-Rotor Cavities by Means of Extensive Field Measurements

Flow and heat exchange in rotor-stator turbine cavities are very complex and it can be difficult to isolate contributions of normal heat and work exchange with the stator (and rotor) from the contribution coming from the possible hot gas ingestion from the main-flow, even for a well-instrumented machine with temperature probes. A simple method of detecting hot gas ingestion in stator-rotor turbine cavities is herein presented, this method is based on the analysis of differential temperatures and their time trends, acquired within several test campaigns recently carried out on three Gas Turbines (GTs).