Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Numerical study on conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled pipe based on a four-equation turbulent heat transfer model

  • Xian-Wen Li (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Xing-Kang Su (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University) ;
  • Long Gu (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Xiang-Yang Wang (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University) ;
  • Da-Jun Fan (Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
  • Received : 2022.12.20
  • Accepted : 2023.02.04
  • Published : 2023.05.25
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Abstract

Conjugate heat transfer between liquid metal and solid is a common phenomenon in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor's fuel assembly and heat exchanger, dramatically affecting the reactor's safety and economy. Therefore, comprehensively studying the sophisticated conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor is profound. However, it has been evidenced that the traditional Simple Gradient Diffusion Hypothesis (SGDH), assuming a constant turbulent Prandtl number (Prt,, usually 0.85 - 1.0), is inappropriate in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of liquid metal. In recent decades, numerous studies have been performed on the four-equation model, which is expected to improve the precision of liquid metal's CFD simulations but has not been introduced into the conjugate heat transfer calculation between liquid metal and solid. Consequently, a four-equation model, consisting of the Abe k - ε turbulence model and the Manservisi k𝜃 - ε𝜃 heat transfer model, is applied to study the conjugate heat transfer concerning liquid metal in the present work. To verify the numerical validity of the four-equation model used in the conjugate heat transfer simulations, we reproduce Johnson's experiments of the liquid lead-bismuth-cooled turbulent pipe flow using the four-equation model and the traditional SGDH model. The simulation results obtained with different models are compared with the available experimental data, revealing that the relative errors of the local Nusselt number and mean heat transfer coefficient obtained with the four-equation model are considerably reduced compared with the SGDH model. Then, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of liquid metal turbulent pipe flow obtained with the four-equation model are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the turbulence model used in the four-equation model on overall simulation performance is investigated. At last, the effectiveness of the four-equation model in the CFD simulations of liquid sodium conjugate heat transfer is assessed. This paper mainly proves that it is feasible to use the four-equation model in the study of liquid metal conjugate heat transfer and provides a reference for the research of conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Research on key technology and safety verification of primary circuit, Grant No. 2020YFB1902104, the Experimental study on thermal hydraulics of fuel rod bundle, Grant No. Y828020XZ0 and the National Natural Science Foundation-Outstanding Youth Foundation, Grant No.12122512.

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