Numerical study of turbulent heat transfer along a heated rod in an annular cavity

Fundamental knowledge on the turbulent convective heat transfer from a rod into liquid metal is of crucial importance for the design of advanced liquid metal operated nuclear systems since a single rod is the basic element of a fuel rod assembly. Therefore, a numerical investigation of the heated rod experiment at KALLA (KArlsruhe Liquid metal LAboratory) has been performed. This experiment investigates the turbulent heat transfer from a heated rod placed concentrically within in a cylindrical tube in a developing flow of a heavy liquid metal (HLM, here Pb45Bi55 Eutectic) at reactor typical power levels and dimensions. It is set up with thermocouples (TCs), a traversable Pitot tube and three thermocouple rakes consisting of numerous thermocouples (TCs). The concentricity is ensured by means of mechanical spacers placed axially equidistant. This article concentrates on the numerical investigation of the impact of the experimental instrumentation on the developing flow pattern and temperature field. In particular, the influence of spacers which distort the velocity profile as well of a potential contact of the spacer with the heated rod changing the heat conduction regime are considered numerically in this paper using the STAR-CD code. The turbulent flow simulation assumes axis-symmetry and uses the SST turbulence model. The simulation results exhibit a flow pattern that is substantially altered by spacers. Hence, the flow can not be considered to be axis-symmetric. This in turn yields that the convective heat transfer from the heated rod towards the spacer region is reduced leading to a temperature rise in spacer region, which represents the maximum value in this domain. As a consequence the entire three-dimensional test section must be modelled in order to correctly represent the physics and to allow an adequate interpretation of the experimental data. (orig.)