Comparative Study and Advancement on a Supercritical-Water Heat-Transfer Correlation for Vertical Bare Tubes

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of convective heat-transfer in water flowing in vertical bare tubes at supercritical conditions. A large dataset within conditions similar to those of SuperCritical Watercooled Nuclear Reactors (SCWRs) was obtained from the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE, Obninsk, Russia). This dataset was compared with existing heat-transfer correlations from the open literature, and a new more comprehensive heat-transfer correlation for predicting Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) values is proposed. A dimensional analysis was conducted to obtain a general form of empirical correlation using a combination of various dimensionless terms. This empirical correlation was verified using the experimental dataset obtained at the Normal Heat-Transfer (NHT) regime using statistical analysis. The final correlation showed the best fit for the experimental dataset within a wide range of flow conditions.