Present status of heat transfer in narrow gap rectangular channel

In the safety evaluation for research nuclear reactors, at the time of abnormal transient change and accidents, after the tripping of a primary coolant pump, such event that the flow direction of coolant in a core reverses from steady downward flow to rising flow is supposed. In this case, the coexisting convection field, in which free convection and forced convection coexist, arises in place of forced convection, and especially in the research reactors using plate type fuel like JRR-3, it is important to grasp the heat transfer characteristics in the coexisting convection field in a narrow channel. Jackson et al. proposed the heat transfer correlation equation which can be applied to wide conditions including the coexisting convection zone, but its applicability to a narrow channel has not been confirmed. Based on the experimental results, in this study, the effect that the decrease of gap exerts to the convection heat transfer characteristics reported so far was investigated. The experiment and the results are reported. In this experiment on the coexisting convection zone in a narrow gap, the effect of main flow acceleration arose sufficiently large as compared with the effect of buoyancy, and heat transfer was promoted. (K.I.)