Numerical simulation of liquid metal turbulent heat transfer from an inline tube bundle in cross-flow

Results of numerical simulation of turbulent flow field and heat transfer of liquid metal in cross-flow over inline tube bundles consisting of smooth round tubes are presented. Computations have been performed with the CFD-code ANSYS Fluent on the base of two-dimensional unsteady RANS formulation using the SST turbulence model by Menter and assuming constant physical properties of a fluid with the Prandtl number equal to 0.023. The Reynolds number was ranged from 26200 to 52400. Instantaneous and time-averaged velocity and temperature fields obtained for bundles of different intertube spacing at variation of the bundle width (number of tube rows in the spanwise direction) were analyzed. Integral characteristics of heat transfer were compared with experimental data.