Investigation on heat transfer characteristics of molten salt in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger

In order to study the heat transfer characteristics (HTCs) of molten salt outside the tube bundle in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger (STHE) without baffle plates, the HTCs of molten salt (204.06 degrees C-236.91 degrees C) are experimentally and numerically investigated in this paper. Firstly, the HTCs of molten salt (3514 < Re < 5482) is experimentally studied based on the test platform with HITEC salt and oil. Then the empirical heat transfer equations of molten salt applied in the shell side of STHE are fitted. Finally, the comparison between the experimental and numerical results is conducted. The results show that the fitted equations agree well with the experimental data and the fitted deviations are only 8%. The error is about 11% between the simulation and experiment results which indicates that the HTCs of molten salt STHE would be predicted well using the simulation method. The numerical results also show that there exist flow dead zones in the STHE which could weaken the molten salt HTCs.