Thermal hydraulic characteristics of intermediate heat exchanger with coaxial bending tubes in a pool-type sodium-cooled fast reactor

The intermediate heat exchanger (IHX), which consists of thousands of tubes assembled along concentric circles, has a complex geometry that makes it extremely difficult to analyze through the 3-D CFD approach, especially when there exists coaxial expansion bends. The motivation of this work is to study its thermal hydraulic characteristics and figure out the influence of the coaxial bends on its performance. In addition, both of the 3-D detail simulation method and the distributed parameter method are employed in this research. And the respective results by these two methods show that the shell-side main flow direction is generally consistent with the tube direction and the rear straight tube section is the main working section with the heat transfer rate of nearly 45% of the total heat transfer rate, and that the bending section plays an important role in controlling the non-uniformity of temperature field.

Automated summary

This study investigates the thermal hydraulic characteristics of the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) and analyzes the influence of coaxial bends on its performance. Utilizing both 3-D detail simulation method and the distributed parameter method, it was found that the shell-side main flow direction is generally consistent with the tube direction, and that the bending section plays a crucial role in controlling the non-uniformity of temperature field.