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Deep space exploration is of great significance to the long-term development of human civilization. In order to address the long-term and stable energy supply, researchers have made efforts on the design and development of lithium-cooled space reactors. As a compact and efficient heat exchanger, the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) can undertake the key heat exchange in space lithium-cooled reactors. While there is a lack of knowledge on coupled heat transfer of PCHE between fluids with different phases, and configurations of sub-channels can be further optimized. Therefore, this paper aims to study the coupled heat transfer between He–Xe mixed gases and liquid metal lithium in microchannels, and to improve the channel structure on the side of liquid metal lithium. The cold side gas is fixed with an airfoil channel, and the high-temperature liquid metal side is designed with various cross-sectional structures of straight channels. Through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and simulation, multiple simulation results of different cross-sectional shapes and areas on the hot side are obtained. The comprehensive parameters such as flow resistance, heat transfer capacity, overall thermal resistance, and specific surface area are calculated for the solution results, and the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid metal lithium under different geometric models are analyzed. The study shows that, influenced by the boundary layer, the pressure drop and friction factor of liquid metal lithium in rectangular channels are the highest; under the same mass flow rate, the Reynolds number and Nusselt number of liquid metal lithium in circular cross-section channels are the largest; at the same time, a larger channel cross-sectional area is beneficial for reducing pressure drop and reducing the thermal resistance of the PCHE metal frame conduction, but it will weaken the overall structural strength. Ultimately, a circular heat channel with a cross-sectional area of 4 mm2 is optimized, and an empirical relationship formula is fitted, providing a theoretical basis for subsequent coupled heat transfer research of PCHE.

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Numerical Simulation of Liquid Lithium–HeXe Coupled Heat Transfer in PCHE with Different Channel Structures

  • 会议论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Chenhao Zou,
  • Dong Li,
  • Cheng Peng,
  • Licheng Gu

摘要

Deep space exploration is of great significance to the long-term development of human civilization. In order to address the long-term and stable energy supply, researchers have made efforts on the design and development of lithium-cooled space reactors. As a compact and efficient heat exchanger, the Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) can undertake the key heat exchange in space lithium-cooled reactors. While there is a lack of knowledge on coupled heat transfer of PCHE between fluids with different phases, and configurations of sub-channels can be further optimized. Therefore, this paper aims to study the coupled heat transfer between He–Xe mixed gases and liquid metal lithium in microchannels, and to improve the channel structure on the side of liquid metal lithium. The cold side gas is fixed with an airfoil channel, and the high-temperature liquid metal side is designed with various cross-sectional structures of straight channels. Through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and simulation, multiple simulation results of different cross-sectional shapes and areas on the hot side are obtained. The comprehensive parameters such as flow resistance, heat transfer capacity, overall thermal resistance, and specific surface area are calculated for the solution results, and the flow and heat transfer characteristics of liquid metal lithium under different geometric models are analyzed. The study shows that, influenced by the boundary layer, the pressure drop and friction factor of liquid metal lithium in rectangular channels are the highest; under the same mass flow rate, the Reynolds number and Nusselt number of liquid metal lithium in circular cross-section channels are the largest; at the same time, a larger channel cross-sectional area is beneficial for reducing pressure drop and reducing the thermal resistance of the PCHE metal frame conduction, but it will weaken the overall structural strength. Ultimately, a circular heat channel with a cross-sectional area of 4 mm2 is optimized, and an empirical relationship formula is fitted, providing a theoretical basis for subsequent coupled heat transfer research of PCHE.