Turbulent Heat Transfer in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in a Heated Horizontal Tube

Published

August 1, 1999

Author(s)

Douglas A. Olson

Abstract

We report measurements of heat transfer coefficients of flowing supercritical carbon dioxide (7.38 MPa critical pressure, 31.1 degrees C critical temperature) in a heated horizontal tube. The tube was 10.9 mm ID, was heated over 274 cm, by hot water flowing countercurrent to the carbon dioxide in an annular gap between the inner tube and an outer tube (16.6 mm ID). This set a convective boundary condition similar to what would be encountered in a shell-in-tube heat exchanger. Operating pressure was varied from 7.8 MPa to 13.1 MPa; average wall heat flux was varied from 12.2 kW/m² to 65.7 kW/m², average CO₂ temperature was veried from 16.9 degrees Celcius to 38.4 degrees Celcius, and the Reynolds number at the Co₂ average temperature was 34 300 to 154 600. The Krashnoschekov-Protopopov correlation for supercritical flow, developed for conditions of a constant heat flux boundary condition when buoyancy is negligible, predicted the measured Nusselt numbers to within one standard deviation of 3.0 %, which was less than the calculated combined standard uncertainty. At the highest pressure tested when the heat flux was low, the measured Nusselt numbers also agreed to the constant property Petukhov-Gnielinski correlation for turbulent flow in a tube. As the pressure was lowered toward the critical pressure, the measured Nusselt numbers diverged from the predictions of the constant property correlation. At these lower pressures, conditions of high mass flow and low heat flow enhanced the heat transfer, while conditions of low mass flow and high heat flow degraded the heat transfer.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 33rd National Heta Transfer Conference

Conference Dates

August 15-17, 1999

Conference Title

National Heat Transfer Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

apparatus, carbon dioxide, counterflow heat exchanger, heat transfer, horizontal tubes, supercritical flows, turbulent flow

Citation

Olson, D. (1999), Turbulent Heat Transfer in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in a Heated Horizontal Tube, Proceedings of the 33rd National Heta Transfer Conference (Accessed May 17, 2024)