Assessment of Heat-Transfer Correlations Against Experimental Data Obtained With Supercritical Water in Vertical Annuli

Eleven correlations proposed for supercritical heat-transfer coefficients were assessed against a set of experimental data obtained recently with supercritical water flow in a vertical annular test section at Xi’an Jiaotong University. The inner heated rod of the test section had an outer diameter of 8 mm, while the outer unheated tube had an inner diameter of 16 mm (resulting in a gap size of 4 mm). The experiment covered pressure range from 23 to 28 MPa, mass-flux range from 350 to 1000 kg/m²s, and heat-flux range from 200 to 1000 kW/m². The assessment shows relatively good agreement between predicted and experimental heat-transfer coefficients for several correlations. Some discrepancies have been observed at the region where deteriorated heat transfer, and are attributed to the modified Dittus-Boelter formulation that captures mainly the normal heat-transfer region. Overall, the Dittus-Boelter correlation is shown applicable only for the normal heat-transfer region, and significantly overpredicts the heat-transfer coefficient at the deteriorated heat-transfer region. The correlation of Bishop et al. appears valid for the current experimental database, particularly for high mass fluxes.