Heat transfer of liquid metal flow in a tube heated on the half of the circumference - Concept of a test loop

This proposal deals with forced convection of liquid metal fluid flow inside a tube, which is heated inhomogeneously. Liquid metals have very low Prandtl number, resulting in a thermal behavior considerably different from that of ordinary fluids (e.g. air or water). A special test section is developed, allowing investigating different thermal boundary conditions, including a non-homogeneous heat flux profile, which is of particular interest in receivers of concentrated solar power plants. This contribution gives information about the specifications and restrictions of the test loop and the test section. Also accompanying CFD simulations are described and first results are presented.