Brayton-cycle heat exchanger technology program

Abstract

The following five tasks designed to advance this development of heat exchanger systems for close loop Brayton cycle power systems are presented: (1) heat transfer and pressure drop data for a finned tubular heat transfer matrix. The tubes are arranged in a triangular array with copper stainless steel laminate strips helically wound on the tubes to form a disk fin geometry; (2) the development of a modularized waste heat exchanger. Means to provide verified double containment are described; (3) the design, fabrication, and test of compact plate fin heat exchangers representative of full scale Brayton cycle recuperators; (4) the analysis and design of bellows suitable for operation at 1600 F and 200 psia for 1,000 cycles and 50,000 hours creep life; and (5) screening tests used to select a low cost braze alloy with the desirable attributes of a gold base alloy. A total of 22 different alloys were investigated; the final selection was Nicrobraz 30.