Numerical investigation of spacer effects on heat transfer of supercritical fluid flow in an annular channel

This paper conducts a numerical investigation of spacer effects on heat transfer of supercritical R-134a flows in a vertical annular channel. The simulations are conducted with SST k-ω turbulent model in Fluent 15.0. The investigation range is in the normal and improved heat transfer region at supercritical pressure. The results show that the spacer end enthalpy has remarkably influence on the spacer effects at supercritical pressure, which is different from that at subcritical pressure. In the liquid-like region, the enhancement effectiveness of spacers increases with increasing spacer end bulk enthalpy. However, in the in the gas-like region, the enhancement effectiveness of spacers decreases with increasing spacer end bulk enthalpy. The enhancement effectiveness reaches a peak value near the pseudo-critical enthalpy. For the parameters sensitivity, besides the blockage ratio, spacer end enthalpy and dimensionless distance to the spacer end, the flow parameters and local enthalpy also have significant influences on the spacer effects. Mechanism analysis shows that the characteristic of the mechanism of disruption of boundary layer is the main cause for the appearance of peak value of enhancement effectiveness near the pseudo-critical region at supercritical pressure. The HTC ratio of bare channels can be used to help the prediction of the HTC ratio in the corresponding spacer downstream.