Review of the Wall Temperature Prediction Capability of Available Correlations for Heat Transfer at Supercritical Conditions of Water

Abstract

The validity of the wall temperature predictions by 18 correlations available in the literature for supercritical heat-transfer regimes of water was verified for 12 experimental datasets consisting of 355 data points available in the literature. The correlations were ranked based on criteria like % data with <5% error, % data with <10°C error and minimum error band in temperature prediction. Details of the best fitting correlations were tabulated. The analysis indicated that for normal heat-transfer conditions, most of the correlations give close predictions. However, at deteriorated heat transfer regimes, only very few prediction points are closer to experimental value. Also, in the ranking process, the first position keeps varying, and no one correlation shall be said as the best for all experiments. Evaluation of the applicability of heat flux to mass-flux-ratio-based prediction of heat-transfer deterioration indicated 75% agreement. The empirical formulae linking mass flux for the prediction of the starting heat flux for heat-transfer deterioration indicated 58.33% of agreement. This review indicated that continued precise experimentation covering wide range of parameter conditions near pseudocritical regime and development of correlations is felt necessary for the accurate prediction of supercritical fluid heat transfer.