Numerical Analysis of Supercritical Water Heat Transfer in Vertical Tube With Different Obstacles

Supercritical Water Reactors (SCWRs) are essentially water reactors operating at pressure and temperature above critical point. The heat transfer coefficient is relative low when the bulk temperature is above the pseudo-critical point due to the properties of vapor-like fluid. To obtain better heat transfer characteristics, increasing the fluctuation using obstacles is the conventional method. Heat transfer characteristic in vertical tube with different obstacles is numerically investigated under supercritical condition. Numerical simulation is carried out with commercial CFD code Fluent 6.1 and adaptive grid. The results show that The RNG k-e model with enhanced wall treatment can obtain a reliable result; the blockage ratio and the local temperature have large influence on the heat transfer enhancement. The influence region and decay trend of obstacles are also studied and compared with existing correlations.© 2009 ASME