Numerical Verifications on Heat Transfer to Supercritical Water Flowing Upward in a 4-m Long Bare Vertical Tube

Thermal efficiency and safety of generation-IV nuclear-power-reactor concept supercritical water-cooled reactor (SCWR) are largely dependent on the coupled supercritical water (SCW) thermophysical properties and heat transfer performance in the supercritical region. This paper presents the numerical investigation of the heat-transfer characteristics of SCW flow in a 4-m long circular tube (ID = 10 mm) based on computational fluid dynamics. Numerical model for SCW was established in this analysis and forced-convection heat transfer was studied at different operating conditions. The data were collected at pressure of about 24 MPa, inlet temperatures from 320 to 350 °C, mass flux from 1000 to 1500 kg/m²·s, and heat flux up to 1500 kW/m². Results of numerical simulation predict the experimental data with reasonable accuracy. A dimensional analysis was conducted to derive the general form of an empirical supercritical water heat-transfer correlation. The decrease of turbulent viscosity due to the decrease of density leads to a lower turbulent diffusion and turbulent kinetic energy, which inhibits heat transfer. The increased wall temperature and localized heat transfer deterioration (HTD) would occur as the liquid in the core of the tube is isolated for the low-density fluid adheres to the near-wall region, which is characterized by low thermal capacity.