Experimental investigation of buoyancy effects on convection heat transfer of supercritical CO2 flow in a horizontal tube

The heat transfer characteristics of supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) turbulent flow were investigated experimentally in a horizontal circular pipe with an inner diameter of 8.7 mm. Local convection coefficients and Nusselt numbers of the flow were obtained at different locations along the pipe with a constant heat flux ranging from 16 to 64 kW/m2. Experiments were performed for fluid mass flow rate ranging from 0.011 to 0.017 kg/s, an inlet fluid temperature ranging from 24 to 28 °C, and a flow pressure ranging from 7.5 to 9.0 MPa to investigate their effects on the convection heat transfer in the pipe. Both enhancement as well as deterioration in the heat transfer coefficient was observed for the flow conditions examined in this work. Experimental results were then compared with the widely used empirical correlation for pipe flow. Three commonly used buoyancy parameters were utilized to investigate their applicability in the present test conditions. Results indicate that all the parameters show a strong presence of buoyancy effects in the present test conditions. The trend and magnitude of these parameters, however, do not agree with the trend and magnitude of heat transfer enhancement and deterioration along the pipe.