Mixed Convective Low Flow Pressure Drop in Vertical Rod Assemblies: II—Experimental Validation

An experimental study has been conducted to validate the predictive models and correlations for laminar and transition flow frictional pressure loss in vertical rod bundles under mixed convection conditions. An experimental procedure has been developed to measure low differential pressures under mixed convection conditions in 19 heated rod bare and wire-wrapped assemblies. The proposed model has been found successfully to predict the effects of wire wrapping, power skew, transition from laminar regime, developing and Interacting flow redistributions, and rod number on the friction loss characteristics in bundle geometries over the bundle average Grq/Re number range of 6 to 18,500.