Modeling of heat transfer in a narrow rectangular channel with partial swelling blockage

Abstract

In plate-fuel-assembly reactor cores, owing to the cladding swelling caused by irradiation damage under high burnup conditions, narrow rectangular channels may be partially blocked. The partial blockage will alter the flow channel shape and affect the heat transfer characteristics. Thus, it is important to focus on the flow and heat transfer characteristics under partial blockage conditions. Accordingly, in this study, the heat transfer at the entrance region of a narrow rectangular channel with protrusions is numerically investigated. Further, variations in the local Nusselt number and fluid field distribution are studied. Results reveal that the protrusions lead to a wake effect that influences the local heat transfer in the blockage region and wake zones. At the upwind face of the protrusions, the local heat transfer increases to a crest value over the hydraulic diameter. A low-speed recirculation region is also formed over a short distance at the intermediate leeward face of the protrusion, resulting in local deterioration of the heat transfer. Moreover, in the wake zone, heat transfer is enhanced owing to the disturbance of the flow streams with different velocities. The effects of the blockage ratio, number, and interval of protrusions on the local heat transfer are also analyzed. This augmentation of the heat transfer decreases with an increase in the Reynolds number, whereas it increases with the height ratio of the protrusions. Additionally, a multiple regression analysis method is employed to analyze the numerical simulation data. Based on these numerical investigations, dimensionless correlations are proposed to estimate the local Nusselt number for rectangular channels with and without partial swelling blockages. The predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental data and reference correlations. For Eqs. (20) and (22), the major points are located within the relative deviation limit of ± 15%, while for Eq. (21), all the data points fall within the relative deviation limit of ± 20%. Comparison results indicate that the correlations can be used to understand the heat transfer upstream and downstream of partial blockages. Furthermore, numerical investigations and qualitative analyses of the effect of spare protrusions on the local heat transfer in the wake area are performed. These spare protrusions lead to local heat transfer deterioration in the wake zone; notably, the spacing between these protrusions does not have a significant influence on the augmentation of the heat transfer downstream.