Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer in the Sodium-To-Air Heat Exchanger Tube Banks on Advanced Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

Abstract

A numerical study was performed to investigate the thermal and hydraulic characteristics and build up design model of the AHX (sodium-to-air heat exchanger) unit of a sodium-cooled fast reactor. Helical-coiled tube banks in the AHX were modeled as porous media and simulated heat and momentum transfer. Two-dimensional flow characteristic appeared at the most region of AHX annulus. Pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient for rectangular, parallelogram and staggered tube banks as the main components of the AHX were evaluated and compared with Zhukauskas empirical correlations.