Abstract
This paper presents results related to liquid metal thermal hydraulics. The application of liquid metals in the engineering field is gaining popularity due to their beneficial thermal characteristics. The present tools for thermal hydraulic analysis usually distinguish between pipe and rod bundle flow only. These geometries are the dominant forms. Geometries deviating from the above mentioned one have been modeled by e.g. a pipe, knowing that this approach is just a coarse approximation. Nevertheless, the consideration of other channel geometries is necessary to perform comprehensive investigations of entire plants or facilities. In this study, rectangular channels will be investigated since such channels with all aspect ratios can be found in almost any thermal plant. It is therefore of crucial importance to predict the thermal hydraulic behavior correctly during any situation. A literature review is performed to derive empirical models which can be implemented into thermal hydraulic analysis tools. With the code TRACE the new models are validated by means of posttest analysis of experiments. The investigation shows that the empirical models predict accurate results. Furthermore, it is shown that geometry dependent models are necessary to perform comprehensive studies and to obtain reliable results.
