Heat transfer deterioration onset of hydrocarbon fuel at supercritical pressure

The present study pays attention to the pressure effect and geometric effect on heat transfer deterioration onset to supercritical hydrocarbon fuel. Numerical simulation about heat transfer deterioration of hydrocarbon fuel flowing upward in vertical round tubes with various diameter at supercritical pressure was performed. In the simulation, a four-species surrogate model of RP-3 based on the generalized corresponding states law was used and LS low-Reynolds number eddy viscosity turbulence model was selected. For the boundary conditions, inlet temperature was 623K, pressure ranged from 3 to 4MPa, tube diameter varied from 3 to 9mm, and wall heat flux to mass flux ratio changed from 0.07 to 3.18kJ/kg. Comparative analyses between the predicted results and the experimental data revealed the accuracy of thermophysical property model and numerical method. The results indicated that the operating pressure and tube diameter have significant effect to the heat transfer deterioration onset of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel: heat transfer deterioration aggravates and heat transfer deterioration onset moves upstream when the diameter increases. With the increase of operating pressure, heat transfer deterioration becomes weak and the heat transfer deterioration onset moves downstream. Based on current results, several existing correlations of the heat transfer deterioration onset were reviewed and assessed, showing different prediction performance. A new correlation of the threshold value for the ratio between heat flux and mass flux for determining the boundary for heat transfer deterioration under various tube diameter and operating pressure was obtained. The effect of length to diameter ratio on safety margin was discussed. The present study provides the optimization design of regenerative cooling on reducing heat transfer deterioration.