NON-DIMENSIONAL NUMBER ANALYSIS BASED ON NATURAL CIRCULATION FLOW CHANGES DURING STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS INSIDE A STRAIGHT-SHAPE HEAT EXCHANGER OF A WATER COOLER TANK IN FASSIP-02 TEST LOOP
Esa Putra Ariesta(a,1), Andrea Shevaladze Al Amin (a), Putut Hery Setiawan (b), Deendarlianto (a), Mulya Juarsa (b,2)

(a)Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Jl. Grafika No.2, Yogyakarta 55281
1) esa.putra416.ep[at]gmail.com

(b)Reactor Thermal-Fluids System Development Research Group,
Research Center for Nuclear Reactor Technology Research Organization for Nuclear Energy (BATAN), National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN),
Building 80, PUSPIPTEK, Tangerang Selatan 15310, Banten
2) mulya.juarsa[at]brin.go.id

Abstract

FASSIP-02 Test Loop is a large-scale experimental facility used to investigate the natural circulation flow rate phenomena in the development of thermal management for the improvement of nuclear reactor passive safety systems. This facility has two main components: a water heater tank, which contains a heater, and a water cooler tank, which contains a straight-shape heat exchanger. The aspect of non-dimensional numbers becomes an integral part of analyzing and studying natural circulation phenomena that occur in water cooler tanks. Thus, the study aimed to analyze non-dimensional numbers such as Reynold and Prandtl during natural circulation flow at a steady state in the straight-shape heat exchanger section with variations in the water temperature setting in the heating section. The research method was carried out experimentally with variations in water temperature settings from 40oC, 50oC, 60oC, 70oC, and 80oC using a total heating power of 20 kW installed in the water heater tank. The analysis results show that the magnitude of the Reynolds number for differences in water temperature settings has an average range from 3120 to 14075, which indicates a change from the transition regime to super turbulence as the water temperature increases in the heating tank. Conversely, the size of the Prandtl number to changes in variations in temperature settings is inversely proportional to the Reynolds number. Whereas the water temperature setting in the heating tank increases from 40oC to 80oC, the Prandtl range decreases from 0.0045 to 0.0025. The important thing is that the Reynolds number for natural circulation flow can reach super turbulence up to 14075 without the circulation pump used in the FASSIP-02 Test Loop

Keywords: FASSIP-02 test loop, water cooler tank, straight-shape HE, Reynolds, Prandtl, natural circulation, passive safety

Topic: PHYSICAL SCIENCES