Enhancement of critical heat flux for subcooled flow boiling of water in tubes with a twisted tape and with a helically coiled wire

This paper reports results of an experimental investigation for critical heat flux (CHF) up to 30 MW/m2 in subcooled flow boiling of water in tubes with a twisted tape and with a helically coiled wire. Experiments were carried out using uniformly heated horizontal tubes with inner diameters of 8 and 12 mm, and with a heated length of 50 mm. Although the CHF of tubes with and without the twisted tape depends on velocity and exit subcooling of water, no observable influence of the tube diameter is detected. As for the CHF enhancement ratio of the tubes with the tape, it is at least 40% higher than the case without the tape, and increases as the exit water subcooling decreases. In the case of the helically coiled wire, the CHF increases as the wire diameter becomes larger and as the coil pitch smaller. The increase of the CHF by the coil, which is the wire diameter of 1.0 mm and the coil pitch of 12 mm, is higher than that by the twisted tape. The CHF model for the smooth tube developed by Celata et al. was applied to the swirl tube by modifying for the calculation of the friction factor, and the radial temperature and velocity distribution in the liquid. Prediction using the modified Celata model accounts for almost all available experimental data for the swirl tube within ±25%. This study is relevant for the development of fusion reactors