Flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid metal sodium in tubes with different inner wall structures

Abstract

Abstract In order to explore the influence of heat transfer medium on the enhancement of flow and heat transfer in the channel, the radial distribution of the streamwise velocity and temperature of water and liquid metal sodium in the square rib tube and the average convective heat transfer coefficient are compared. Numerical results show that the velocity gradient of liquid metal sodium near the wall is slightly larger than that of water, while the temperature gradient is significantly smaller. The heat transfer effect of liquid metal sodium is significantly better than that of water. When the velocity is 3m/s and 11m/s, the average convective heat transfer coefficient of liquid metal sodium increases by 220.59% and 193.42%, respectively, compared with water. In order to analyze the effect of inner strengthened structure on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid metal sodium, the circular tube, square rib tube and circular arc rib tube are studied. Numerical simulation results show that both the average Nusselt number and pressure drop of square rib tube are the largest. When Peclet number is 270 and 990, the average Nusselt number of square rib tube increases by 13.60% and 57.89%, respectively, compared with that of circular tube.