Heat Transfer of Supercritical CO2 Flow in Natural Convection Circulation System

Measurements are reported of heat transfer to supercritical carbon dioxide (SCD) flow in a natural convection circulation system that consists of a closed-loop circular pipe. Systematic data of heat transfer coefficients are given for various pressures and pipe diameters. Heat transfer coefficients of SCD flow are confirmed to be very much higher than those of usually encountered fluid flow and are shown to be expressed by a nondimensional correlation equation proposed in this work. Numerical model calculations are also presented for the velocity and temperature distributions in SCD flow to elucidate the exceedingly high value of heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer enhancement of SCD is concluded to result from the high-speed flow near the pipe wall. This strong flow is shown to have velocity and temperature gradients steep enough to cause the enhancement of the rate of heat transfer in the vicinity of the pipe wall.