Experimental Study on Heat Transfer Enhancement Effect with Different Shapes of Mixing Vanes in Sub-Channels of 6×6 Rod Bundle

Abstract

In the present study, single-phase heat transfer characteristics for downstream flow in the support grid of 6×6 rod bundle were investigated. It has been known that a turbulence generation due to a support grid with split mixing vanes enhances heat transfer in rod bundle but its heat transfer enhancement actually affects to relatively shorter distance. On the other hand, it has been also turned out that a support grid with large scale vortex flow (LSVF) mixing vanes results in heat transfer enhancement to a longer distance. Based on the results of literatre survey, single-phase water heat transfer experiments were performed for Reynolds numbers at around 30,000, and the heat transfer enhancement effect with both i) the split mixing vanes and ii) the LSVF mixing vanes was compared in this study. The key results showed that the effect of heat transfer enhancement in rod bundle region by the split mixing vanes was maintained up to the length of 15Dh behind the spacer grid. For the Reynolds numbers at around 30,000, it was also observed that the effect using the LSVF mixing vanes was stronger at about 3% when compared to the case using the split mixing vanes only for the distance ranging from 1 to 15Dh behind the spacer grid.