Experimental heat transfer in supercritical water flowing inside channels (survey)

This literature survey is for heat transfer to supercritical water flowing in channels. The objectives are to assess the work that was done and to understand the specifics of heat transfer at these conditions. Our exhaustive literature search, which included over 450 papers, showed that the majority of experimental data were obtained in vertical tubes, some data in horizontal tubes and just a few in other flow geometries including bundles. In general, the experiments showed that there are three heat transfer modes in fluids at supercritical pressures: (1) normal heat transfer, (2) deteriorated heat transfer with lower values of the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and hence higher values of wall temperature within some part of a test section compared to those of normal heat transfer and (3) improved heat transfer with higher values of the HTC and hence lower values of wall temperature within some part of a test section compared to those of normal heat transfer. The deteriorated heat transfer usually appears at high heat fluxes and lower mass fluxes. Also, a peak in HTC near the critical and pseudo-critical points was recorded. Due to the limited number of publications that are devoted to heat transfer in bundles cooled with water at supercritical pressures, more work is definitely needed to provide the additional information for design purposes.