Paper 3: A Review of Forced Convection Heat Transfer to Fluids at Supercritical Pressures

Abstract

Current interest in heat transfer to fluids near the critical point stems from developments in steam plant, nuclear reactors, and rocket motors and this paper reviews the present situation regarding forced convection. A brief survey of existing experimental data and empirical correlations is followed by a discussion of the main semi-empirical theories that have been proposed. It is concluded that neither correlations nor theories show sufficient agreement with experiment to justify their use except in very limited circumstances. Moreover, there are discrepancies between sets of measurements made under apparently similar conditions. In these circumstances it is clearly necessary to review the possible heat transfer mechanisms that may be important under near-critical conditions. The paper concludes with such a review, together with suggestions for future experiments.