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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
Bryce K. Y. Matsuo, Mark Anderson, Devesh Ranjan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 176 | Number 2 | February 2014 | Pages 138-153
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE12-85
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Geometrical effects on the local heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and pressure drop for supercritical carbon dioxide in printed-circuit heat exchangers are numerically quantified. Combinations of different operating pressures (7.5 to 10.2 MPa), mass fluxes [326 to 762 kg/(m2⋅s)], and the enhanced wall treatment k-ε and shear stress transport k-ω turbulence models are investigated using a finite-volume framework. Three different channel geometries are used: a nonchamfered zig-zag (ideal case), a chamfered zig-zag (prototype case), and an airfoil (ideal case). The simulations are compared with experimental results and empirical correlations. A new correlation is developed based on the numerical data obtained and published experimental data for the zig-zag channels. The results show that the local HTC increases with an increase in operating pressure or an increase in mass flux for each channel. The HTC of the zig-zag channel is found to be approximately 2.5 times that of the airfoil; however, the pressure drop is 4.0 to 8.3 times higher. Based on these results, the area goodness ratios of the nonchamfered and chamfered zig-zag channels are respectively 2.65 and 1.57 times larger than that of the airfoil.