Forced Convection Heat Transfer for Helium Gas Under Exponentially Decreasing Flow Condition

Abstract

Knowledge of the heat transfer phenomenon during flow decay transient condition is important for the safety assessment of very high temperature reactor (VHTR) during the loss of coolant accident. In this study, transient heat transfer from a horizontal cylinder to helium gas under exponentially decreasing flow rate condition was experimentally studied. The experiment was performed by using a forced convection heat transfer test loop. A flow control value with its control system was used to realize the flow decay condition. Helium gas was used as coolant and platinum cylinder with 1 mm in diameter was used as the test heater. A uniform heat generation rate was added to the cylinder by a power source. The cylinder temperature was maintained at an initial value under a definite initial flow rate of the helium gas. Then, the mass flow rate of the helium gas starts to decrease exponentially with different time constants ranged from 4.3 s to 15.4 s. The initial flow velocity ranged from 10 m/s to 4 m/s. The surface temperature, heat flux, and heat transfer coefficient were measured during the flow decay transient process under wide experimental conditions such as initial flow rate, flow decay time constant. It was found that the temperature of the test heater shows rapid increase during this process, the increasing rate of the temperature is higher for a shorter time constant. The heat transfer coefficient versus time during the flow rate decreasing process was also obtained. The transient heat transfer process during exponentially decreasing flow rate condition was clarified based on the experimental data.