A Comparative Assessment on Different Aspects of the Non-Linear Instability Dynamics of Supercritical Fluid in Parallel Channel Systems

Munendra Pal Singh, Abdallah Sofiane Berrouk and Suneet Singh
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Munendra Pal Singh: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Abdallah Sofiane Berrouk: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Suneet Singh: Department of Energy Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-22

Abstract: The thermal-hydraulic behavior of supercritical water reactors with a parallel channel configuration was examined through a non-linear instability analysis. This analysis was performed under wide-ranging conditions and aspects, including different working supercritical fluids, varied heat-flux and flow-rate conditions, and channel inclinations. The supercritical fluid (SCFs) dynamics were captured using the density, enthalpy, and velocity analytical approximation functions. The major findings show that both SCFs (water and carbon dioxide) experienced density wave oscillations at a low pseudo-subcooling number. Static instability characteristics were observed for supercritical water, at a relatively high subcooling number. Further, it was found that at different heat flux, the hotter channel makes the overall system more unstable, whereas, at equal heat flux, parallel channels perform similar to a single-channel system. However, the effect of the inclination angle was found to be negligible owing to supercritical pressure conditions. Moreover, stable and unstable limit cycles along with out-of-phase oscillation characteristics were observed in dynamic stability regions. The present model was also compared with experimental and numerical data. Moreover, co-dimension and numerical simulations were performed to confirm the observed non-linear characteristics. This study helps to enhance the heat transfer characteristics during safe operation of heated channel systems, such as nuclear reactors and solar thermal systems.

Keywords: supercritical fluid; non-linear stability analysis; nuclear reactor; Ledinegg instability; Hopf bifurcation (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
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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