Natural Convection in Missouri S&T Scaled Down Channels Facility

A Scaled Down Separate-Effects Dual Channel Facility has been constructed and designed by Multiphase Reactor Engineering Application Laboratory (mReal) team to investigate plenum to plenum natural circulation which is considered as a safety feature of the prismatic modular reactor (PMR) during accident scenarios. The natural circulation heat transfers through two different channels (heated and cooled channels) for coolant flow between lower and upper plenum. The heated channel was heated uniformly by electric heaters, while the cooled channel is cooled water chiller system to initiate the natural circulation by create a variation in temperature. At different axial locations were the heat transfer data collected, in terms of the local wall surface, local air centerline temperatures, heat flux, heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number