Turbulent convective heat transfer with molten salt in a circular pipe

In order to understand the heat transfer characteristics of molten salt and testify the validity of the well-known empirical convective heat transfer correlations, an experimental study on turbulent convective heat transfer with molten salt in a circular tube was conducted in this paper. Molten salt circulations were realized and operated in a specially designed system over 1000 h. The flow rates and temperatures of molten salt and mineral oil at the inlet and outlet in the test section were measured and the average forced convective heat transfer coefficients of molten salt were determined by least-squares method. Finally, heat transfer correlations of turbulent flow with molten salt in a circular tube were obtained. Good agreement was observed between the experimental data of molten salt and the existing well-known correlations. The experimental data of molten salt in the present work are consistent with experimental results reported by different references in a wide range of Prandtl numbers from 0.7 to 59.9. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.