Characterization of Sodium Cross Flow Over Hexagonal Subassemblies
U. Partha Sarathy1,a, T. Sundararajan2,c, C. Balaji2,d and K. Velusamy1,b
1Reactor Engineering Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603 102, India.
aups@igcar.gov.in
bkvelu@igcar.gov.in
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600 036, India.
csundar@iitm.ac.in
dbalaji@iitm.ac.in
ABSTRACT
In this paper, sodium cross flow over a tightly packed bundle of hexagonal subassemblies has been characterized. The complex flow path has been simplified and 2-Dimensional steady state analysis has been carried out using the general purpose CFD code STAR-CD. The analysis has been carried out for both laminar and turbulent flows. Turbulence has been modeled using low Reynolds number turbulence model, wherein no wall functions have been used. The estimated pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients are compared against that of a straight parallel plate channel. It is seen that in the laminar regime, the pressure drop for the hexagonal path is mildly larger than the parallel plate channel of the same length. However, in the turbulent regime, the pressure drop of the hexagonal path is much higher than the parallel plate channel value. The larger pressure drop is due to the recirculation at the sharp corners of the hexagonal path and changes in flow direction. In the laminar regime the Nusselt number is found to be slightly more than that of the parallel plate channel. However, in the turbulent regime, it is nearly twice that of the parallel plate channel.
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