Heat transfer in a cooling water pool with tube bundles under natural circulation

SMART was developed for electricity generation and seawater desalination and adopted a passive system to enhance its safety. This system could passively remove decay heat from the reactor core to the emergency cooldown tank (ECT) through the heat exchanger. A natural circulation flow was established as water covered the tube bundle inside the emergency cooldown tank. Heat transfer tests for the upward straight tube bundle in the emergency cooldown tank were performed to find the characteristics of the passive system design under natural circulation conditions. The heat transfer coefficient at the tube bundle was affected by the cooling water temperature, and the radial location of the tube. However, it has nearly a similar value at the bottom region regardless of the tube location. The average heat transfer coefficient for the tube bundle was slightly higher than that for the single tube owing to the turbulence effect among the tube bundles.