Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the flow field of staggered square pin-fin array in a wide rectangle channel (AR = 4). The experiment was conducted at two Reynolds number, 10000 and 20000, based on the hydraulic diameter and bulk velocity of the channel. The distribution of flow field properties was compared with that of Nu to analysis the key flow physics driving heat transfer enhancement in channel with square pin fin. The Nusselt number was achieved through temperature measurement using thermochromic liquid crystal in the same geometry setup. Results were compared with those for circular pin fin to study the effect of geometry on flow physics driving heat transfer enhancement. It was found that the wake length of square pin fin is longer than that of circular pin fin, which indicated flow around square pin fin requires longer distance to develop. Compared to circular pin fin, small scale disturbances in the shear layer of square pin fin show its contribution to local end wall heat transfer enhancement. Large motions benefit end wall heat transfer more effectively at lower Re. Small scale unsteadiness contributes more to heat transfer augment as flow develops or Reynolds number increases while large scale motions get weaker.

The velocity field in a wide rectangular channel ( AR = 4) with staggered circular pin fin array was measured using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The cylinder pin fin has a diameter of 8 mm and height to diameter ratio ( H/D ) of 3. The streamwise pitch ( X/D ) and spanwise pitch ( S/D ) of pin fins are 4.5 and 2 respectively. The experiment was conducted at two Reynolds number, 10000 and 20000, based on the hydraulic diameter and bulk velocity of the channel. The mean velocity, first-order statistics of velocity fluctuation and turbulent kinetic energy components in the measured plane are given. Results show, the distribution of the cross-stream velocity fluctuation ( V rms ), other than second-order statistics, has a similar pattern as that of the local Nusselt number on the end wall between pin fin rows while the flow is in developing. The Nusselt number was achieved through temperature measurement using thermochromic liquid crystal in the same geometry setup. Therefore, compared to second-order statistics, the cross-stream velocity fluctuation might be a simple but crucial flow quantity for heat transfer enhancement using pin fins in the developing region. The shedding of large vortices from circular pin fins is believed to be the primary flow structure inducing the cross-stream velocity fluctuation. Study on pin fins with various geometries is required before further conclusion drawn.

As a promising mitigation strategy, In-vessel-retention (IVR) has been an important research focus in realms of nuclear safety analysis. For IVR analysis, it’s of importance to study the natural convection behaviors of the corium pool formed in the lower plenum of the reactor vessel. Because of the different densities between corium compositions, typically the corium pool is believed to evolve to two-layer configurations, with a heavier oxide layer at bottom and a metal layer on top. To know better the convection behaviors of the layered corium pools, research was performed both experimentally and numerically. The test section for the experiment is a two-dimensional semi-ellipsoidal slice, which measures a span of 1.2m, a total pool depth of 0.75m and a thickness of 0.2m. Two immiscible fluid, i.e. fluorinert fluid FC-40 and water, were chosen to simulate the oxide layer and the metal layer respectively. Based on the experimental settings, numerical simulations were performed, and the results were compared with the experimental data. Further, discussions were made on the focusing effect, the relationship between the temperature and the velocity field, and also the coupling modes in the two-layer system. These results offer more details to the knowledge of layered corium pools and can be helpful for IVR analysis.

In recent years, hybrid nanofluids, as a new kind of working fluid, have been widely studied because they possessing better heat transfer performance than single component nanofluids when prepared with proper constituents and proportions. The application of hybrid nanofluids in nuclear power system as a working fluid is an effective way of improving the capability of In-Vessel Retention (IVR) when the reactor is in a severe accident. In order to obtain hybrid nanofluids with excellent heat transfer performance, three kinds of hybrid nanofluids with high thermal conductivity are measured by transient plane source method, and their viscosity and stability are also investigated experimentally. These experimental results are used to evaluate the heat transfer efficiency of hybrid nanofluids. The results show that: (1) The thermal conductivity of hybrid nanofluids increases with increasing temperature and volume concentration. When compared to the base fluid, the thermal conductivity of Al 2 O 3 -CuO/H 2 O, Al 2 O 3 -C/H 2 O and AlN-TiO 2 /H2O nanofluids at 0.25% volume concentration increased by 36%, 24%, and 22%, respectively. (2) Surfactants can improve the stability of hybrid nanofluids. The Zeta potential value is related to the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluids, and it could be used to explain the relationship between the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluids and the dispersion. It also could provide a reference for subsequent screening of high thermal conductivity nanofluids. (3) The addition of C/H 2 O can effectively reduce the dynamic viscosity coefficient of hybrid nanofluids. (4) The analysis of heat transfer efficiency of the hybrid nanofluids found that both Al 2 O 3 -CuO/H 2 O and Al 2 O 3 -C/H 2 O have better heat transfer ability than water under certain mixing conditions. This study is conducive to further optimizing hybrid nanofluids and its application to the In-Vessel Retention in severe reactor accidents.

Equipping pin-fins in the blade trailing edge is an significant method for enhancing heat transfer. In order to obtain a geometry of pin-fins with good heat transfer effect and small friction factor, six pin-fins (circular, elliptic, oblong, teardrop, lancet and NACA) are selected. The flow and heat transfer features of the rectangular channel with the staggered pin-fins were numerically studied through FLUENT software. The channels with different pin-fins have the same relative spanwise pitch (S/D = 2.5) and streamwise pitch (X/D = 2.5), and the range of Reynolds number is 5×10 3 to 3×10 4 . The applicability and accuracy of five turbulence models (Standard k-ε, Realizable k-ε, RNG k-ε, Standard k-ω and SST k-ω) are checked by comparing the numerically predicted results with the experimental from literature. It is found that the Realizable k-ε model is better at capturing the microstructure of flow field and has higher precision in predicting the averaged Nusselt number on the heated surface. For the six pin-fins, the leading edge is surrounded by a “U-shaped” strong heat exchange zone, but the vortex systems in the trailing edge are different from each other. Compared to the circular pin-fin, the oblong pin-fin has the best heat transfer enhancement effect, but the friction factor of channel is also larger. While the NACA pin-fin has the lowest friction factor, and the heat transfer effect is second only to the oblong. NACA pin-fin may be applied in blade trailing edge cooling by further optimizing the relative position of the pin-fins in the channel.

Previous researches on latticework were focused on the convective heat transfer performance on pressure and suction sides of a blade model. Besides, it has an effect on leading edge by impingement. Thus, the present study provides heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss of jet impingement of a latticework on side wall in a wide channel (AR = 4). Two latticework configurations with impingement effects are employed in this study. Three kinds of sub-channel models are used in this experiment, which is according to different cooling designs. The angle of the rib is 45° and the numbers of subchannel are 4, 6 and 8, respectively. Reynolds number range is from 10000 to 30000 with an increment of 10000. The wall temperature is obtained by using wide band liquid crystal technique, and then the heat transfer coefficients on the target surface of the channel are achieved. Pressure drop of the latticework channel is also measured by pressure taps. The result shows that these two latticework models have different flow and heat transfer characteristics. The Nusselt number distribution is not similar to that of traditional jet array impingement. The range of Nusselt number enhancement is 2.3 to 6.4 compared to that of a smooth convective channel (the Nusselt number is based on the channel hydraulic diameter). The jet-to-target distance could reduce the overall averaged heat transfer on side wall. But it could also lead to a high Nu region. To the normal lattice model, more sub-channels there are, more pressure loss it has. To the novel lattice model, sub-channel number cannot affect the pressure loss, but the jet-to-target distance could affect the friction factor obviously.

Liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) has been studied as a new type of coolant for an accelerator driven sub-critical system (ADS). And the gas-lift pump has been used to enhance the circulation capacity of coolant in ADS instead of mechanical pumps due to its simpler mechanical structure and higher security. The purpose of this experiment is to study the circulation capacity enhancement by gas-lift technique and the flow and heat transfer characteristic of liquid LBE in an annular channel. The experimental results show that: gas-injection can significantly increase liquid LBE mass flow rate, but the growth of liquid LBE mass flow rate will be reduced when gas flow rate reaches a value; The friction coefficient of liquid LBE in an annular channel decreases with the increase of Re and is larger than that calculated by Blasius formula at the same Re. For the convection heat transfer of liquid LBE in an annular channel, the heat conduction term is dominant, and Nusselt number increases with the increase of Peclet number. The experimental correlations of friction coefficient and convection heat transfer of liquid LBE in annular channel were fitted based on experimental data and compared with those from literature.

Multiphase flow widely exists in the nature and engineering. The two-phase flow is the highlight of the studies about the flow in the vessel and steam explosion in nuclear severe accidents. The Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method is a fully-Lagrangian particle method without grid mesh which focuses on tracking the single particle and concerns with its movement. It has advantages in tracking complex multiphase flows compared with gird methods, and thus shows great potential in predicting multiphase flows. The objective of this thesis is to develop a general multiphase particle method based on the original MPS method and thus this work is of great significance for improving the numerical method for simulating the instability in reactor severe accident and two-phase flows in vessel. This research is intended to provide a study of the instability based on the MPS method. Latest achievements of mesh-free particle methods in instability are researched and a new multiphase MPS method, which is based on the original one, for simulating instability has been developed and validated. Based on referring to other researchers’ papers, the Pressure Poisson Equation (PPE), the viscosity term, the free surface particle determination part and the surface tension model are optimized or added. The numerical simulation on stratification behavior of two immiscible flows is carried out and results are analyzed after data processing. It is proved that the improved MPS method is more accurate than the original method in analysis of multiphase flows. In this paper, the main purposes are simulating and discussing Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability and Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. R-T and K-H instability play an important role in the mixing process of many layered flows. R-T instability occurs when a lower density fluid is supported by another density higher fluid or higher density fluid is accelerated by lower density fluid, and the resulting small perturbation increases and eventually forms turbulence. K-H instability is a small disturbance for two different densities, such as waves, at the interface of the two-phase fluid after giving a fixed acceleration in the fluid. Turbulence generated by R-T instability and K-H instability has an important effect in applications such as astrophysics, geophysics, and nuclear science.

In the nuclear reactor design, the critical heat flux (CHF) is one of the most important parameters for the reactor safety analysis. The occurrence of CHF will cause a sharp increase in the fuel rod surface temperature, which will result in the failure of fuel claddings and damage of the core. The CHF depends on the local flow conditions and the geometry of the flow channels, which makes the prediction of CHF in a fuel assembly more difficult when considering the cross flow between neighboring channels, spacer grids and mixing vanes. In this paper, the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) type CHF in rod bundles under motion conditions is investigated based on the coupled analysis of the subchannel method and a CHF mechanism model, namely the liquid sublayer dryout model. The liquid sublayer dryout model assumes that there is a thin liquid sublayer underneath a vapor blanket formed by the coalescence of small bubbles near the heated wall. The dryout of this sublayer is considered as the CHF occurrence. In the liquid sublayer dryout model, sublayer thickness, velocity and length of the vapor blanket are three crucial parameters. In present research, the subchannel code calculates the local flow conditions for the rod bundle and provides input parameters for the liquid sublayer dryout model to predict CHF. In order to verify the method above, the predicted results are compared with the CHF Look-Up Table 2006 (LUT-2006) and a reasonable agreement can be achieved. In addition, the effects of rod bundle inlet coolant mass flow rate, subcooling and motion conditions on the CHF are analyzed.

Several double-jet film-cooling (DJFC) hole geometries on a flat plate are investigated in this paper. Pressure sensitive paint (PSP) is used to measure the film-cooling effectiveness on the flat plate. The streamwise distance between the DJFC holes varies as s / d = 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0, while three different spanwise distance conditions are considered ( p / d = 0, 0.5, and 1.0). The diameter ( d ) of the DJFC holes is 7 mm, and the pitch ( P ) between each set of the DJFC holes is 8 d . The holes have an inclination angle ( θ ) of 35°, and a compound angle ( β ) of ± 45°. The density ratio ( DR ) varies as 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5, and the blowing ratio ( M ) is 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0. Both effects of the streamwise distance between DJFC holes, and the density ratio on film-cooling effectiveness are focused. Results show, though the effect of the streamwise distance is not monotonic all the time, a general trend exists when comparing with the baseline case of s / d = 3.0. For p / d = 0, increasing the streamwise distance leads to wider lateral coverage and higher laterally averaged effectiveness; however, for p / d = 0.5 and 1.0, an increased s / d may weaken the interaction between the two jets, thus the film coverage and effectiveness decrease. A higher density ratio reduces the jet momentum, therefore better attachment and higher effectiveness are obtained. Effects of the streamwise distance and the density ratio on double-jet film-cooling are more distinct when the blowing ratio rises. However, in most cases, both of them show minor influence on the range of lateral coverage, as it is mainly dominated by the spanwise distance. For each operation condition ( DR and M ), an optimal DJFC configuration (among the geometries in this study) is identified by comparing the area averaged effectiveness.

In order to investigate the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of LBE in Accelerator Driven System (ADS), the Natural Circulation Capability Loop (NCCL) test facility was designed and constructed at Xi’An Jiaotong university in 2015. NCCL is a middle-scale experimental loop designed for investigating the natural circulation capacity, gas-lift pump enhancing circulation capacity and heat-transfer characteristic of LBE. For the natural circulation capability experiment, the loop is filled with argon gas at 0.2 MPa before filling LBE from store tank. The maximum temperature of LBE is 500 C°, while the normal operation temperature was maintained at 400 C°. In this paper, the LBE natural circulation characteristics were investigated with experiments in NCCL test facility. The study includes measurements on start-up of natural circulation and capability of natural circulation. Significant natural convection flow was observed in the experiments. It was found that the natural circulation was quickly established and stabilized due to LBE high thermal expansion property. It took only a few minutes to have a stable natural circulation prevailing from cold conditions. At the same time, the temperature difference between heating section and cooling section increase quickly and reach to the maximum value. And in the range of 10 minutes, a steady circulation can be performed. The natural circulation flowrate depends on the loop resistance, and the temperature difference between the hot leg and the cold leg, as determined by the power level and the heat sink capacity. The experiments show that the maximum flowrate for the natural circulation is 0∼0.81 kg/s.

Convective heat transfer enhancement and pressure loss characteristics in a wide rectangular channel ( AR = 4) with staggered pin fin arrays are investigated experimentally. Six sets of pin fins with the same nominal diameter ( D n = 8mm) are tested, including: Circular, Elliptic, Oblong, Dropform, NACA and Lancet. The relative spanwise pitch ( S/D n = 2) and streamwise pitch ( X/D n = 4.5) are kept the same for all six sets. Same nominal diameter and arrangement guarantee the same blockage area in the channel for each set. Reynolds number based on channel hydraulic diameter is from 10000 to 70000 with an increment of 10000. Using thermochromic liquid crystal (R40C20W), heat transfer coefficients on bottom surface of the channel are achieved. The obtained friction factor, Nusselt number and overall thermal performance are compared with the previously published data from other groups. The averaged Nusselt number of Circular pin fins is the largest in these six pin fins under different Re . Though Elliptic has a moderate level of Nusselt number, its pressure loss is next to the lowest. Elliptic pin fins have pretty good overall thermal performance in the tested Reynolds number range. When Re >40000, Lancet has a same level of performance as Circular, but its pressure loss is much lower than Circular. These two types are both promising alternative configuration to Circular pin fin used in gas turbine blade.

As a novel strategy to improve heat transfer characteristics of fluids by the addition of solid particles with diameters below 100 nm, nanofluids exhibits unprecedented heat transfer properties and are being considered as potential working fluids to be used in high heat flux systems such as nuclear reactors, electronic cooling systems and solar collectors. The present paper reviews the state-of-the-art studies on nanofluid boiling heat transfer performance and critical heat flux (CHF) enhancement. It is found that some results on nanofluids boiling heat transfer performance are inconsistent or contradictory in data published. The knowledge on the mechanism of nanofluids boiling CHF enhancement is insufficient. Bubble dynamics of nanofluids boiling is suggested to be investigated to identify the exact contributions of solid surface modifications and suspended nanoparticles to CHF enhancement in nanofluids boiling heat transfer.