Online Determining Heat Transfer Coefficient for Monitoring Transient Thermal Stresses

Abstract

This paper proposes an effective method for determining thermal stresses in structural elements with a three-dimensional transient temperature field. This is the situation in the case of pressure elements of complex shapes. When the thermal stresses are determined by the finite element method (FEM), the temperature of the fluid and the heat transfer coefficient on the internal surface must be known. Both values are very difficult to determine under industrial conditions. In this paper, an inverse space marching method was proposed for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient on the active surface of the thick-walled plate. The temperature and heat flux on the exposed surface were obtained by measuring the unsteady temperature in a small region on the insulated external surface of a pressure component that is easily accessible. Three different procedures for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient on the water-spray surface were presented, with the division of the plate into three or four finite volumes in the normal direction to the plate surface. Calculation and experimental tests were carried out in order to validate the method. The results of the measurements and calculations agreed very well. The computer calculation time is short, so the technique can be used for online stress determination. The proposed method can be applied to monitor thermal stresses in the components of the power unit in thermal power plants, both conventional and nuclear.