Pretest in forced circulation molten salt heat transfer loop: Studies with thermia‐B

Abstract

AbstractMolten salts have potential application as an efficient heat transfer medium in a primary and secondary heat exchanger in high temperature next‐generation nuclear power plant. Thermal hydraulic studies are vital for reliable and cost‐effective design of the nuclear power plant. Therefore heat transfer study of molten salts will play a vital role in this area. In this work, an experimental system was designed to study thermal hydraulics of the molten salt system up to 700°C. This work describes the pretest results of the experimental facility for extremely corrosive molten fluoride salts with a simulant thermia‐B as the working fluid. In the present work, the details of the system are discussed and thermal‐hydraulic data for heat transfer fluid thermia‐B has been presented. Experiments were carried out at Reynolds number in the range of 4500 to 40 500 and Prandtl number in the range of 34 to 144. Effect of Reynolds number, melting tank temperature, and heat input to test section on forced convective heat transfer was studied under turbulent conditions. Comparison of the experimental data with different empirical correlations has been presented.