Experimental study of the steady natural convection in a horizontal annulus with irregular boundaries

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5427187

Boyd, R D

The natural convective heat transfer across an annulus with irregular boundaries was studied using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The annulus was formed by an inner hexagonal cylinder and an outer concentric circular cylinder. This configuration models, in two dimensions, a liquid metal fast breeder reactor spent fuel subassembly inside a shipping container. During the test, the annulus was filled with a single gas, either neon, air, argon, krypton, or xenon, at a pressure of about 0.5 MPa. From temperature measurements, both local and mean Nusselt numbers (Nu/sub ..delta../) at the surface of the inner cylinder were evaluated, with the mean Rayleigh number (anti Ra/sub ..delta../) varying from 4.54 x 10/sup 4/ to 0.915 x 10/sup 6/ (..delta.. is the local gas width). The data correlation for the mean Nusselt and Rayleigh numbers is given by anti Nu/sub ..delta../ = 0.183 anti Ra/sub ..delta..//sup 0/ /sup 310/.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Livermore, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5427187
• Report Number(s): SAND-79-2354C; CONF-800723-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420204* -- Engineering-- Shipping Containers
420400 -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ANNULAR SPACE
CASKS
CONFIGURATION
CONTAINERS
CONVECTION
DATA
DATA FORMS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID FLOW
GAS FLOW
GRAPHS
INFORMATION
INTERFEROMETERS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NATURAL CONVECTION
NUMERICAL DATA
NUSSELT NUMBER
REYNOLDS NUMBER
SPENT FUEL CASKS