Numerical simulation of liquid metal turbulent heat transfer from an inline tube bundle in cross-flow

Results of the numerical simulation of turbulent flow field and heat transfer of liquid metal in cross-flow over inline tube bundles consisting of smooth round tubes are presented. Computations have been performed with CFD-code ANSYS Fluent on the base of a two-dimensional unsteady RANS formulation using the SST turbulence model by Menter and assuming constant physical properties of a fluid with the Prandtl number equal to 0.023. The Reynolds number ranged from 26,200 to 52,400. Instantaneous and time-averaged velocity and temperature fields obtained for bundles of different intertube spacing with a variation of the bundle width (number of tube rows in the cross direction) were analyzed. Integral characteristics of heat transfer were compared with the experimental data.