Transient Forced Convection Heat Transfer Due to Exponentially Increasing Heat Input for Helium Gas Flowing on a Narrow Plate

Abstract

Steady and transient forced convection transient heat transfer due to exponentially increasing heat input to a heater is important as a database for safety assessment of the transient heat transfer process not only in a high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) due to an accident in excess reactivity but also in high heat flux gas cooling devices such as a gas turbine and a rocket engine. In this research, forced convection transient heat transfer for helium gas at various periods of exponential increase of heat input (Q0exp(t/τ)) to a horizontal narrow plate was numerically solved based on a turbulent flow model. The platinum plate with a length of 50 mm was used as test heater. The velocities ranged from 4 to 10 m/s, the gas temperatures ranged from 313 to 353 K, and the periods of heat generation rate, τ, ranged from 46 ms to 8.6 s. The values of numerical solutions for surface temperature and heat flux were compared and discussed with authors’ experimental values. It was obtained that the surface temperature difference and heat flux increase exponentially as the heat generation rate increases with the exponential function. Then the temperature within the boundary layer also increases with the increase of the surface temperature. It is understood that the gradient of the temperature distribution near the wall of the plate is higher at a higher surface temperature difference. The values of numerical solutions for surface temperature and heat flux at the velocity of 6 m/s agree well with the experimental data, though they show some differences at other velocities. And also, heat transfer coefficients at the velocity of 6 m/s agree well with the experimental data, though they show some differences at other velocities. They agree within 15% at various periods and velocities.