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The work described in this paper has been funded by the Euratom research and training program 2014-2018 under grant agreement No. 654935 (SESAME).

Analysis of institutional authors

Ortiz, A VillaAuthor

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October 18, 2022
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Status and perspectives of turbulent heat transfer modelling in low-Prandtl number fluids

Publicated to:Nuclear Engineering And Design. 353 110220- - 2019-11-01 353(), DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.110220

Authors: Shams, A; De Santis, A; Koloszar, L K; Ortiz, A Villa; Narayanan, C

Affiliations

ASCOMP GmbH, Zurich, Switzerland - Author
Nucl Res & Consultancy Grp NRG, Westerduinweg 3, NL-1755 LE Petten, Netherlands - Author
von Karman Inst Fluid Dynam, Rhode St Genese, Belgium - Author

Abstract

Thermal-hydraulics is recognized as a key safety challenge in the development of liquid metal cooled reactors. At nominal operating conditions, the Prandtl number of liquid metals which are used as primary coolants, such as lead and sodium, is very low: typically of the order of 0.025-0.001. Obtaining an accurate prediction of the turbulent heat transfer at such a low Prandtl number is not an easy task for the standard turbulence models and has challenged the modellers over several decades. In the framework of the EU SESAME project, an effort has been put forward to assess and/or further develop/calibrate different turbulent heat flux closures. In this regard, the present article reports an assessment of four different turbulent heat flux closures for applications involving low-Prandtl fluids. These closures include: (i) the Reynolds analogy based on a constant turbulent Prandtl number (ii) a four-equation explicit algebraic heat flux model (AHFM) (ii) a three-equation implicit AHFM called AHFM-NRG and (iv) a non-linear second-order heat flux model called Turbulence Model for Buoyant Flows (TMBF). The performance of these turbulence models has been assessed in three different test cases against high-fidelity numerical reference data been generated within the SESAME project. The three test cases are: a natural Rayleigh-Benard convection flow, a mixed convection planar channel flow and a forced convection impinging jet flow. The shortcomings of the classical Reynolds analogy approach for low-Prandtl fluids in all flow regimes are highlighted; hence, more advanced and well-calibrated closures are recommended.

Keywords

Algebraic heat flux modelFlowFlux modelLiquid-metal cooled reactorsLow-prandtl fluidsNatural-convectionRansTurbulent heat transfer

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Nuclear Engineering And Design due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2019, it was in position 8/34, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Nuclear Science & Technology.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.99. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 6.49 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-16, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 30

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-16:

  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 34 (PlumX).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; Netherlands; Switzerland.