Heat Transfer To Supercritical Water Flowing Through Vertical Bare Tubes

Abstract

SuperCritical Water Reactors (SCWRs) provide an increase in thermal efficiency over current light- and heavy-water reactors. The challenges preventing engineers from implementing SCWRs into the nuclear fleet include alternative heat-transfer regimes and a lack of reliable experimental data. In this paper, new experimental data from the National Technical University of Ukraine are presented and analysed. The validity of subcritical-pressure correlations such as the Dittus-Boelter correlation and empirical correlations to determine the onset of the Deteriorated Heat Transfer (DHT) regime are discussed. Ultimately, it was found that the known correlation for the onset of the DHT heat flux was quite accurate for its prediction.