A NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF TURBULENT FLOW AND CONJUGATE HEAT TRANSFER IN A 4-CUSP CHANNEL

A numerical investigation of fully developed flow and heat transfer in a 4-cusp duct simulating a blocked PWR channel has been made. For this particular geometry, a well-known finite difference procedure has been developed for the prediction of the azimuthal variation of wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient in the case of conjugate heat transfer. In the turbulent flow case, a two equation ‘k-e’ model was employed, pseudo-unidirectional flow being solved initially to provide the starting point for the prediction of that with transverse secondary flows. The calculations refer to liquid water and air as the working fluids in laminar and turbulent flow respectively.