Abstract

The application of microchannel heat exchanger (MCHX) technology for the development of compact, high power density integral steam generators is investigated. A representative MCHX test section with two-phase flow of water on one side and hotter, single-phase flow of water on the other side is designed and fabricated. A test facility with hot, boiling, and cold fluid loops, respectively, is developed to experimentally investigate the heat duty and pressure drop performance of the MCHX steam generator under a wide range of operating conditions. Tests designed to isolate specific heat transfer regimes such as subcooled boiling, saturated boiling and dryout are conducted to assess the accuracy of correlations and transition criteria available in the literature. The 0.248 × 0.056 × 0.041 m MCHX steam generator transferred ~65 kW for the conditions investigated. A segmented heat transfer and pressure drop model is developed for the MCHX steam generator using the closure models that provide the best agreement with the data from the regime-specific experiments. The resulting model provides good agreement with the overall data set, with an Absolute Average Deviation (AAD) of ~3% and ~10% for heat duty and pressure drop, respectively, for the data points for which the exit is predicted to be in the saturated boiling flow regime. For the data points where the exit flow is predicted to be in the post-dryout regime, the AADs for heat duty and pressure drop are ~12.4% and ~5.6%, respectively. The experimentally validated model developed in this study could aid the design and development of modular, MCHX steam generators for both large-scale as well as small modular reactors.

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