Transient heat transfer for forced convection flow of helium gas

Abstract

The knowledge of forced convection transient heat transfer at various periods of exponential increase of heat input to a heater is important as a database for understanding the transient heat transfer process in a high temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) due to an accident in excess reactivity. The transient heat transfer coefficients for forced convection flow of helium gas over a horizontal cylinder were measured using a forced convection test loop. The platinum heater with a diameter of 1.0 mm was heated by electric current with an exponential increase of Qo exp(t/r). It was clarified that the heat transfer coefficient approaches the quasi-steady-state one for the period r over 1 s, and it becomes higher for the period of r shorter than 1 s. The transient heat transfer shows less dependent on the gas flowing velocity when the period becomes very shorter. Semi-empirical correlations for quasi-steady-state and transient heat transfer were developed based on the experimental data.