Experimental Investigation in Improving Thermal Performance of Passive Heat Removal System using Mist Assisted Evaporative Cooling

Abstract

Demands to increase the safety and reliability of the modern nuclear reactors are constantly being made. Typical demands include the increases the thermal performance of the passive heat removal system PHRS by removing larger amounts of energy and applied a technique that leads to reduce size and weight of the PHRS unit. This article presents an experimental investigation on the natural convection based on alternative cooling approach using water mist. The results obtained from the related experimental work indicated that the heat transfer rate was enhanced over that for the airflow as a result of water mist evaporation on the surface of the tubes. The Nu number increases by about 148%, 144%, and 128% respectively for all tube rows compared with airflow. The experimental results of the thermal performance factor values obtained by suspended water mist were correlated as functions of Rayleigh number (Ra) and Weber number (We). Subsequently, the predicted thermal performance factor from the correlation was plotted to compare with the experimental data. It was found that the thermal performance factor was within ±11%.