Experiment of Heat Transfer to Supercritical Water Flowing in Vertical Annular Channels

An experimental study of heat transfer to supercritical water has been performed at Xi'an Jiaotong University with a vertical annular tube. The annular test sections were constructed with an annular gap of 2 mm and an internal heater of 8 mm outer diameter. Experimental parameter covered pressures of 23 and 25 MPa, mass fluxes of 700 and 1000 kg/m²s, and heat fluxes of 200–1000 kW/m². Experimental data were acquired from downward flow and upward flow, respectively. There were differences of heat-transfer characteristics between the two flow directions. Compared to upward flow, the heat-transfer coefficient increased at downward flow. A strong effect of spacer on heat transfer is observed at locations downstream of the device in the annuli regardless of flow direction. The spacer effect impaired the buoyancy effect at low heat flux, but not for large heat flux. Complex of forced convection and mixed convection in supercritical water is due to various thermophysical properties and the gravity. The affected zone of the spacer effect depends on the flow conditions. The buoyancy effect was analyzed qualitatively in this study and the criterion $Gr¯/Re2.7<10-5$ for negligible heat-transfer impairment was discussed. Four correlations were compared with the experimental data; the Swenson correlation predicted nearly the experimental data but overpredicted slightly the heat-transfer coefficients.