Quantitative experiments on thermal hydraulic characteristics of an annular tube with twisted fins

Thermal hydraulic experiments measuring critical heat flux (CHF) and pressure drop of an annular tube with twisted fins, ''annular swirl tube'', has been performed to examine its applicability to the ITER divertor cooling structure. The annular swirl tube consists of two concentric circular tubes, the outer and inner tubes. The outer tube with outer and inner diameters (OD and ID) of 21 mm and 15 mm is made of Cu-alloy that is CuCrZr and oe of candidate materials of the ITER divertor cooling tube. The inner tube with OD of 11 mm and ID of 9 mm is made of stainless steal. It has an external swirl fin with twist ratio (y) of three to enhance its heat transfer performance. In this tube, cooling water flows inside of the inner tube first, and then returns into an annulus between the outer and inner tubes with a swirl flow at an end-return of the cooling tube. The CHF experiments show that no degradation of CHF of the annular swirl tube in comparison with the conventional swirl tube whose dimensions are similar to those of the outer tube of the annular swirl tube. A minimum axial velocity of 7.1 m/s is required to remove the incident heat flux of 28MW/m2, the ITER design value. Applicability of the JAERI's correlation for the heat transfer to the annular swirl tube is also demonstrated by comparing the experimental results with those of the numerical analysis. The friction factor correlation for the annular flow with the twisted fins is also proposed for the hydrodynamic design of the ITER vertical target. The least pressure drop at the end-return is obtained by using the hemispherical end-plug. Its radius is the same as that of ID of the outer cooling tube. These results show that thermal-hydraulic performance of the annular swirl tube is promising in application to the cooling structure for the ITER vertical target. (author)