Abstract
The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation is performed to determine on the thermo- and hydrodynamic performance of the water–alumina (Al2O3) nanofluid in a square array subchannel featuring pitch-to-diameter ratios of 1.25 and 1.35. Two fundamental aspects of thermal hydraulics, viz. heat transfer and pressure drop, are assessed under typical pressurized water reactor (PWR) conditions at various flow rates (3 × 105 ⩽ Re ⩽ 6 × 105) using pure water and differing concentrations of water–alumina nanofluid (0.5–3.0 vol.%) as coolant. Numerical results are compared against predictions made by conventional single-phase convective heat transfer and pressure loss correlations for fully developed turbulent flow. It is observed that addition of tiny nanoparticles in PWR coolant can give rise to the convective heat transfer coefficient at the expense of larger pressure drop. Nevertheless, a modified correlation as a function of nanoparticle volume fraction is proposed to estimate nanofluid Nusselt number more precisely in square array subchannel.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 194-204 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Nuclear Engineering and Design |
| Volume | 308 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 1 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIP) under Grant No. 2008-0061900 and partly supported by the Brain Korea 21 Plus under Grant No. 21A20130012821. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Hirofumi Daiguji, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Tokyo and Drs. E.S. Kim and H.K. Cho, both Professors of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University, for their endless effort to improve the quality of this work.