Flow and heat transfer evaluation of lead-bismuth eutectic coolant for nuclear power application

• A set of experiments of LBE heat transfer in a circular tube were carried out. • CFD simulations of LBE heat transfer in a circular tube were carried out using different turbulent model and Pr-t model. • Evaluation of the applicability of the numerical models was carried out combing simulation results and experiment results. The understanding of flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE) is essential for nuclear applications. In this paper, a corresponding experimental facility was established and a set of experiments of heat transfer of lead–bismuth eutectic flow in a circular tube was carried out, and a new heat transfer correlation was obtained through the experimental data to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics and evaluate a suitable computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for LBE flow. The correlation fits well to the experimental data and the deviation of the correlation is smaller than 15%. At the same time, a CFD program was employed to evaluated the applicability of various turbulent models (standard k- ∊ , standard k- ω , SST k- ω ) and turbulent Prandtl number models for LBE flows in the circular tube. Among the turbulence models, SST k- ω model shows the best agreements, the relative deviation of the simulation result from the experimental data is −3.0%∼34.7%. Among the turbulent Prandtl number models, Cheng-Tak model shows the best agreement, the relative deviation is 0.18%∼24.7%. This work provides valuable experimental data and CFD simulation method for liquid metal flow and heat transfer analysis.