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DOE OSTI · 1824140

Characterizing Heat Transfer in sCO 2 Cycle Coolers Utilizing the Wilson Plot Technique

Searle, Matthew·Ramesh, Sridharan·Straub, Douglas
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Abstract

Effective design of coolers can decrease the capital expense of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) power plants. Improved datasets reporting heat transfer from the CO 2 in the cycle cooler allow design engineers to calculate the required length of heat exchanger streams more accurately, thus reducing cooler material and heat exchanger cost. This study considered a shell-and-tube heat exchanger with non-condensing CO 2 on the tube side and water flow on the shell side. The average Nusselt number on the tube side was measured employing the Wilson plot technique for a flow at a Reynolds number, Re, equal to 1×10 5 and for a heat flux to mass flux ratio, Q"/G, ranging from 50 to 350 J/kg. The results indicate that the Nusselt number, Nu, increases as the CO 2 pressure decreases towards the critical point. The results also indicate that Nu increases to maximum at Q"/G = 215 J/kg and then decreases with further increases in Q"/G. The difference in Nu measured between the horizontal and vertical heat exchanger with downward flowing CO 2 is less than the experimental error.

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Searle, Matthew, Ramesh, Sridharan, Straub, Douglas. 2021-10-05. Characterizing Heat Transfer in sCO 2 Cycle Coolers Utilizing the Wilson Plot Technique. https://doi.org/10.2172/1824140

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