Correlation Investigation of Condensation Heat Exchanger Design for Secondary Passive Cooling System

Abstract

Recently vertical or horizontal type condensation heat exchangers are being studied for the application to secondary passive cooling system of nuclear plants. To design vertical condensation heat exchanger in water pool, a thermal sizing program of condensation heat exchanger, TSCON (Thermal Sizing of CONdenser) was developed in KAERI (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute). In this study, condensation heat transfer correlation of TSCON is evaluated with the existing experimental data set to design condensation heat exchanger without non-condensable gas (pure steam condensation). From the investigation of the existing condensation heat transfer correlation to the existing experimental data, the improved Shah correlation showed most satisfactory results for the heat transfer coefficient and mass flow rate in a heat exchanger in both subcooled and saturated water pools without the presence of non-condensable gas.