• SCWRs
• Deteriorated Heat Transfer
• CFD
• Supercritical Fluids

Heat transfer to supercritical fluids has been studied in several past decades, though satisfactory models are not yet available especially for deteriorated heat transfer phenomena. The present study, performed in the frame of researches in support to the design of Generation IV Supercritical Water Cooled Nuclear Reactors (SCWRs), analyses heat transfer data with carbon dioxide at pressure higher than the critical one using a CFD code. It must be noted that carbon dioxide is often used as a fluid replacing water in laboratory experiments, showing similar phenomena at lower operating pressures and temperatures. The purpose of the work is to carry out a detailed validation of a previously adopted turbulence model in order to highlight its capabilities and limitations. After a thorough assessment of the model, possible improvements are tried in order to compensate for observed deficiencies, obtaining results that are in better agreement with experimental data.