FORCED CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER OF SUBCOOLED LIQUID NITROGEN IN HORIZONTAL TUBE

Abstract

The knowledge of forced convection heat transfer of liquid hydrogen is important for the cooling design of a HTS superconducting magnet and a cold neutron moderator material. An experimental apparatus that could obtain forced flow without a pump was developed. As a first step of the study, the forced flow heat transfer of subcooled liquid nitrogen in a horizontal tube, instead of liquid hydrogen, was measured for the pressures ranging from 0.3 to 2.5 MPa. The inlet temperature was varied from 78 K to around its saturation temperature. The flow velocities were varied from 0.1 to 7 m/s. The heat transfer coefficients in the non-boiling region and the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) heat fluxes were higher for higher flow velocity and higher subcooling. The measured values of Nu/Pr0.4 in the non-boiling region were proportional to Reynolds number (Re) to the power of 0.8. With a decrease in Re, Nu/Pr0.4 approached a constant value corresponding to that in a pool of liquid nitrogen. The correlation of DNB heat flux was derived that can describe the experimental data within ±15% difference.