Numerical simulation to study mixing vane spacer effects on heat transfer performance of supercritical pressure fluid in an annular channel.

The spacer represents an essential part in the nuclear fuel rod. Spacer grid with mixing vanes in fuel rod bundle of nuclear reactor core has a significant impact on heat transfer performance in downstream to grid spacer. Grid Spacers are located on the nuclear fuel rod assembly to hold suitable clearance among the rods in a bundle. The objective of this paper is to study the enhanced heat transfer performance of R134a at supercritical pressure 4.5 MPa near downstream to mixing vane spacer in a vertical channel of annular flow. A spacer of 0.38 blockage ratio with mixing vanes, situated at mid-span of an annular channel is used in the present work. Numerical simulations have been accomplished for spacer with mixing vane and spacer without mixing vane in an annular channel by using commercial CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) code ANSYS Fluent. The present investigation represents the comparative study for spacer with mixing vane and spacer without mixing vane effects on heat transfer and flow field characteristics in a downstream direction for mass flow-rate 0.41469 kg/s and heat flux 160 kW/m². The results indicate that spacer with mixing vane has notable influence on heat transfer performance and flow field characteristics downstream of mixing vane spacer as compared to spacer without mixing vane. Wall temperature fall and increase of coefficient of heat transfer are significantly greater adjacent to spacer downstream. Spacer influence in the improvement of the heat transfer is noted up to distance X/D = 40 downstream and then flow is found as fully developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]