Parametric and uncertainty study of a counter current LBE-water heat exchanger with trace and susa

Due to the variety of existing physical models for the heat transfer and for the description of thermo physical properties, the modeling results of different users for the same design can be different. These discrepancies can be rather big and have therefore a big impact on the thermo hydraulic performance of the investigated design proposals, in the present case a LBE-water counter current heat exchanger. A parametric, and a subsequent uncertainty and sensitivity study, is performed with different LBE to wall heat transfer models and different sets of the thermo physical properties of the heat exchanger material, steel and oxide layer. The investigations reveal that with best practice models the transferred power of the investigated heat exchanger design can range from 26 MW to 31 MW, with a target value of 27.5 MW. For the parametric study the thermal conductivity range of the oxide has the biggest impact on the results while for the uncertainty analysis the heat transfer model and the thermal conductivity of the oxide layer are of importance.