Numerical Investigation on Heat Transfer Deterioration of Supercritical Water in a Heated Vertical Tube

Abstract

This study is to evaluate various low-Reynolds number turbulence models for predicting turbulent mixed convection heat transfer of supercritical water. Six low-Reynolds number turbulence models including ABID, LB, LS, YS, AKN and CHC have been considered, and the results were compared directly with the recent available experimental data. The results show that all models except LS are to some extent able to reproduce the wall temperature variation involving an initial heat transfer deterioration followed by a subsequent heat transfer recovery. The heat transfer deterioration is almost entirely due to the turbulence production caused by the distortion of the flow as a result of the influence of buoyancy. Moreover, the recovery of heat transfer is due to the decrease of buoyancy force after heat transfer deterioration.