Study on Convective Heat Transfer Characteristics of Supercritical Liquid Hydrogen in a U-Type Tube inside a Moderator

Weida Fu, Yiping Lu, Fei Shen, Longwei Mei, Songlin Wang, Youlian Lu, Lingbo Zhu, Shinian Fu and Jianfei Tong
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Weida Fu: Department of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150080, China
Yiping Lu: Department of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150080, China
Fei Shen: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Longwei Mei: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Songlin Wang: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Youlian Lu: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Lingbo Zhu: Department of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin 150080, China
Shinian Fu: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Jianfei Tong: Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: The flow and heat transfer characteristics of supercritical fluid in a U-tube have an important influence on the safe operation of a moderator, and the variation of gravity direction is suitable for special working conditions of the moderator. In this study, the three-dimensional turbulence flow and heat transfers of supercritical liquid hydrogen in a U-tube were investigated at an Re number ranging from 16,425 to 54,750 under constant heat flux ( q = 80 kW/m 2 ). The total length of the U-tube was 1725 mm, which had an entrance length L/D of 23, with the inner diameter and wall thickness of D × δ = 10 × 2 mm. The finite volume method was adopted, and the grid independence was verified by the grid convergence index (GCI). The calculation results of three turbulence models (SST k-w , RNG k-ε , Standard k-ε ) were compared with the corresponding experimental data to obtain the turbulence model with the smallest error. The convective heat transfer characteristics with different values of heat flux ( q = 30 kW/m 2 ~100 kW/m 2 ), mass flow ( G = 3 g/s~10 g/s), and gravity ( g x , g y , g z ) were compared. Meanwhile, the heat transfer characteristics of supercritical liquid and conventional liquid hydrogen were compared. The results show that Nu increased from 5 g/s to 10 g/s by 56.6%, and mass flow rate had a greater impact on the variation of Nu ; when gravity direction was consistent with the flow direction of liquid hydrogen ( g x direction), the Nu number inside the channel was 4.21% and 5.56% higher than that in g y and g z direction, respectively. Supercritical liquid hydrogen has a stronger heat transfer ability than conventional liquid hydrogen, of which the Nu number is 16.7% higher. This study can provide useful guidance for the design of flow and heat transfer of supercritical liquid hydrogen in a U-tube and its application in moderators. Furthermore, it provides reference technical values for thermal safety and thermal management of the target station to ensure its safe and stable operation.

Keywords: neutron moderator; numerical method; supercritical liquid hydrogen; U-tube; convective heat transfer; gravity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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