Augmented safety heat transport in research reactor IR-40 using nanofluid

This paper is aimed at understanding heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids for prospective application to water cooled research reactors. A numerical analysis is performed to investigate turbulent convective heat transfer and fluid flow features of Al₂O₃ nanofluid as working fluid for a typical water cooled research reactor. The Al₂O₃/water nanofluid of 1 % by volume was used for the numerical simulation resorting to the homogenous fluid assumptions with modified thermophysical properties. The results indicated that the heat transfer increases with nanoparticle volume concentrations. The average heat transfer coefficient is found to be 4.05 % higher for the nanofluid than for pure water. It accordingly appears promising to adopt nanofluids in water cooled research reactors. Further studies are needed for neutronics as well as thermohydrodynamics to fine-tune the nanoparticle concentration during normal and off-normal operations. (orig.)