Large Eddy Simulation of the Flow Behavior in a Simplified Helical Coil Steam Generator

Large eddy simulation (LES) is conducted for the flow over the shell side of a helical coil steam generator (HCSG) heat exchanger. Simulations are conducted on a simplified experimental test section that represents a one-column region of the helical coils using half-rods. Although the rods are wall-bounded, the flow still exhibits the turbulent characteristics and fluctuations from vortex shedding that one would expect from crossflow around a cylinder. The spectral element, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Nek5000, is used to capture the physics, and the results are compared with particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. In order to ensure that the turbulence is resolved, analysis is conducted by using the Taylor length scales and normalized wall distance. Sensitivity to the inlet boundary conditions (BCs) and the spatial discretization for different polynomial order solutions are also studied, finding only minor differences between each case. Pressure drop and velocity statistics show reasonable agreement with PIV. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis reveals that the primary modes are similar between experiment and simulation, although the LES predicts higher turbulent kinetic energy than does PIV. Overall, the study establishes the resolution and resources required in order to conduct a high-fidelity simulation over 12 helical rods.