Numerical investigation into the flow and heat transfer in corrugated and embossed heat-transfer plates for space nuclear power applications

Abstract

In this article, the flow and heat transfer of liquid lithium and helium in a traditional corrugated plate and an embossed plate is numerically investigated, and on the basis of obtaining the temperature and velocity field distributions, the flow and heat transfer characteristics under different inlet parameters of helium are compared and analyzed. It is found that under the same working condition, the heat transfer performance of the corrugated plate on the helium side is higher than that of the embossed plate, while the flow performance is worse. In the range of the helium inlet temperature between 323 K and 448 K, the comprehensive performance of the embossed plate is superior to that of the corrugated plate, with Nu·f ^(–1/3) 10.74% higher than the corrugated plate. Also, at a relatively lower helium inlet velocity ranging from 0.8 m/s to 1.3 m/s, the embossed plate outperforms the corrugated plate by 8.83% in terms of comprehensive performance; whereas for the higher inlet velocity from 1.3 m/s to 1.8 m/s, the corrugated plate shows a better comprehensive performance, with Nu·f ^(–1/3) 6.51% higher than the embossed plate. In detail, the flow characteristics across a single embossed structure are examined, revealing the streamlined distribution, and the evolution process of the vortex structure.

Keywords:

• Corrugated plate
• embossed plate
• flow pattern
• liquid metal
• plate heat exchanger
• space power
• vortex structure

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nos. 52276155 & 51876090, and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, No. BK20211188.