Non-Condensable Gases Effect on Heat Transfer Processes Between Condensing Steam and Boiling Water in Heat Exchanger With Multirow Horizontal Tube Bundle

The experimental investigations of non-condensable gases effect on the steam condensation inside multirow horizontal tube bundle of heat exchanger under heat transfer to boiling water were carried out at the large-scale test facility in the Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE). The experiments were carried out for natural circulation conditions in primary and secondary circuits of the facility at primary circuit steam pressure of P_s1 = 0.34 MPa. The experimental heat exchanger’s tube bundle consists of 248 horizontal coiled tubes arranged in 62 rows. Each row consists of 4 stainless steel tubes of 16 mm in outer diameter, 1.5 mm in wall thickness and of 10.2 m in length. The experimental heat exchanger was equipped with more than 100 thermocouples enabling the temperatures of primary and secondary facility circuits to be controlled in both tube bundle and in the inter-tubular space. The non-condensable gases with different density — nitrogen and helium were used in the experiments. The volumetric content of gases in tube bundle amounted to ε = 0.49. The empirical correlation for the prediction of the relative heat transfer coefficient k/k₀ = f (ε) for steam condensation in steam-gas mixture was obtained.