Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Single Phase Square Natural Circulation Loop

Abstract

Experimental and numerical analyses are carried out for a natural circulation loop (NCL) under low and moderate heater power. The effect of ambient temperature variation on the loop thermal behavior has been taken into account in present study. The effect of liquid inertia has a role in the initial transience, as revealed by the numerical and experimental observations. The steadystate results from the present analyses are validated with the reported dimensionless results for NCL. The experimental steadystate results are in fair agreement with the developed lumped numerical models. At moderate power, the numerical and experimental results indicate periodic oscillations.