THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Chongju Hu

,

Dali Yu

,

Meisheng He

,

Taosheng Li

,

Jie Yu

DESIGN AND VERIFICATION OF ULTRA-HIGH TEMPERATURE LITHIUM HEAT PIPE BASED EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY

ABSTRACT
Lithium heat pipe has broad applications in heat pipe cooled reactors and hypersonic vehicles due to its ultra-high working temperature which is around 1700 K. In this paper, a lithium heat pipe based experimental facility has been designed to test the heat transfer performance of the lithium heat pipe. A simplified mathematical model of heat pipe has been implemented into a CFD approach, which is used to verify the design of lithium heat pipe and its experimental facility. Results showed that the CFD approach is in good agreements with some well-known existing models and experimental data, and deviation between the results is within 5% range. The adjustment range of mixed gas thermal resistance and cooling water flow rate was obtained by analyzing the effects of different cooling conditions on the performance of the experimental facility. It is necessary to ensure the cooling water flow rate is above 0.11 Lph to prevent water boiling when the heating power is 10 kW around, and the optimal proportion of helium is 70-90%. The operation characteristics of the lithium heat pipe under unsteady-state with varying heating power were simulated numerically. The results show that the proportion of helium must be less than 60% for normal operation of the lithium heat pipe. This work provides a reference and numerical verification for the design of lithium heat pipe based experimental facility, which can be used to reveal the heat transfer mecha¬nisms of the lithium heat pipe during the experiment.
KEYWORDS
Lithium heat pipe, computational fluid dynamics, heat transfer performance, Heat transfer limit
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2021-05-28
PAPER REVISED: 2021-07-13
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2021-07-16
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2021-09-04
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI210528263H
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2022, VOLUME 26, ISSUE Issue 4, PAGES [3413 - 3426]
REFERENCES
  1. Y. Yuan, J. Shan, B. Zhang, J. Gou, et al. Study on startup characteristics of heat pipe cooled and AMTEC conversion space reactor system, Progress in Nuclear Energy, 86 (2016) 18 30.
  2. H. Sun, C. Wang, P. Ma, et al. Conceptual desi gn and analysis of a multipurpose micro nuclear reactor power source, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 121 (2018) 118 127.
  3. P. Mcclure, Ray, D. Dixon, Duff, D. Poston, Irvin, R. Kapernick, J., R. Reid, Stowers, V. Dasari, Rao, Mobile heat pipe cooled fast reactor system in, US, 2014.
  4. A. Faghri, Heat Pipe Science and Technology, CRC Press, Washington, DC, 1995.
  5. X. Liu, R. Zhang, Y. Liang, et al. Core thermal hydraulic evaluation of a heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 142 (2020).
  6. P. R. Mcclure, V. R. Dasari, R. S. Reid, et al. Design of Megawatt Power Level Heat Pipe Reactors, LA UR 15 28840, 2015.
  7. M. A. Gibson, D. I. Poston , P. R. Mcclure, et al. Kilopower reactor using stirling technolog Y (KRUSTY) nuclear ground test results and lessons learned, NASA/TM 2018 219941, 2018.
  8. M. A. Gibson, S. R. Oleson, D. I. Poston, et al. NASA's Kilopower Reactor Development and the Path to Higher Power Missions, in: Aerospace Conference, 2017.
  9. A. Levinsky, J.V. Wyk, Y. Arafat, M.C. Smith, Westinghouse eVinciTM Reactor for off Grid Markets, in: American Nuclear Society Winter Meeting 2018, 2018.
  10. R . Hernandez, M. Todosow, N. R. Brown, Micro heat pipe nuclear reactor concepts: Analysis of fuel cycle performance and environmental impacts, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 126(APR.) (2019) 419 426.
  11. T. Sukchana, C. Jaiboonma, Effect of Filling Ratios and Adiaba tic Length on Thermal Efficiency of Long Heat Pipe Filled with R 134a, Energy Procedia, 34(1) (2013) 298 306.
  12. Mahdavi, Mahboobe, Tiari, Saeed, De, Schampheleire, Sven, Qiu, Songgang, Experimental study of the thermal characteristics of a heat pipe, Experim ental Thermal & Fluid Science International Journal of Experimental Heat Transfer Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics, (2018)
  13. M. Khalili, M.B. Shafii, Experimental and numerical investigation of the thermal performance of a novel sintered wick heat pipe, Ap plied Thermal Engineering, (2016).
  14. Y.X. Xiong, L. Bo, M. Qiang, et al. A characteristic study on the start up performance of molten salt heat pipes: Experimental investigation, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 82 (2017) 433 438.
  15. Q. Lu, H. Han, L. Hu , et al. Preparation and testing of nickel based superalloy/sodium heat pipes, Heat and Mass Transfer, 53(11) (2017) 1 7.
  16. C. Liu, Q. Li, D.S. Fan, Fabrication and performance evaluation of flexible flat heat pipes for the thermal control of deployable stru cture, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 144
  17. Z. H. Liu, Y. Y. Li, R. Bao, Thermal performance of inclined grooved heat pipes using nanofluids, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 49(9) (2010) 1680 1687.
  18. G., Kumaresan, P., Vija yakumar, M., Ravikumar, R., Kamatchi, P., Selvakumar, Experimental study on effect of wick structures on thermal performance enhancement of cylindrical heat pipes, Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 136(2019) 389 400.
  19. J. Supowit, T. Heflinger, M. Stubblebine, et al. Designer fluid performance and inclination angle effects in a flat grooved heat pipe, Applied Thermal Engineering, (2016) 770 777.
  20. J.E. Kemme, Ultimate heat pipe performance, IEEE Trans. Electron. Devices, 16 (1969) 717 723.
  21. C. Li, G. P. Peterson, Y. Wang, Evaporation/Boiling in Thin Capillary Wicks (l) Wick Thickness Effects, Journal of Heat Transfer, 128 (2006) 1312.
  22. C. Li, G. P. Peterson, Evaporation/Boiling in Thin Capillary Wicks (II) Effects of Volumetric Porosity and Mesh Size, J ournal of Heat Transfer, 128 (2006) 1320 1328.
  23. Seo, Joseph, Lee, Jae Young, Length effect on entrainment limitation of vertical wickless heat pipe, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, (2016).
  24. C. L. Wang, L. R. Zhang, X. Liu, et al. Experimenta l study on startup performance of high temperature potassium heat pipe at different inclination angles and input powers for nuclear reactor application, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 136 (2020).
  25. S. Miao, J. Sui, Y. Zhang, et al. Experimental Study on Thermal P erformance of a Bent Copper Water Heat Pipe, International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, (2020).
  26. K. Baraya, J.A. Weibel, S.V. Garimella, Heat pipe dryout and temperature hysteresis in response to transient heat pulses exceeding the capillary limit, Int ernational Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 148 (2020).
  27. C. Wang, X. Liu, M. Liu, et al. Experimental study on heat transfer limit of high temperature potassium heat pipe for advanced reactors, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 151 (2021).
  28. Q. W, Developments in H eat Transfer, InTech, 2011.
  29. D. A. Reay, K. P. Reay, R. J. Mcglen, Heat Pipes Theory Design & Applications, Butterworth Heinemann, Burlington, 2006.
  30. J. M. Tournier, M. S. El Genk, Startup of a horizontal lithium molybdenum heat pipe from a frozen state, Int ernational Journal of Heat & Mass Transfer, 46 (2003) 671 685.
  31. M. A. Merrigan, E.S. Keddy, J.T. Sena, Transient performance investigation of a space power system heat pipe, in: 4th Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Conference, 1986.
  32. S. W. Chi, Heat Pipe Theo ry and Practice, New York, Hemisphere, 1976.
  33. P. D. Dunn, D. A. Reay, Heat Pipes, New York, Pergamon, 1978.
  34. S.P.o. China, Niobium and niobium alloy seamless tubes, in, Standards Press of China, Beijing, 2007.
  35. S.P.o. China, Testing method for heat transfer performance of heat pipes, in, Standards Press of China, Beijing, 2008.
  36. C. L. Wang, D. L. Zhang, S. Z. Qiu, et al. Study on the characteristics of the sodium heat pipe in passive residual heat removal system of molten salt reactor, Nuclear Engineering and Design, 265 (2013) 691 700.
  37. Y. Cao, A. Faghri, A Numerical Analysis of High Temperature Heat Pipe Startup From the Frozen State, Journal of Heat Transfer, 115 (1993).
  38. Z. J. Zuo, A. Faghri, A network thermodynamic analysis of the heat pipe, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 41 (1998) 1473 1484.
  39. A. Faghri, C. Harley, Transient lumped heat pipe analyses, Heat Recovery Systems and CHP, 14 (1994) 351 363.
  40. Y. Cao, A. Faghri, Transient two dimensional compressible analysis for high temperature heat pipes with pulsed heat input, Numerical Heat Transfer Part A Applications, 18 (1991) 483 502.
PDF VERSION [DOWNLOAD]
Design and verification of ultra-high temperature lithium heat pipe based experimental facility

© 2024 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence