In order to get the natural convection heat transfer mechanism of molten salt, the experimental investigation of natural convective heat transfer of LiNO3was studied after it was simulated by numerical calculation. Experiment was carried out on the nat-ural convection heat transfer of air and water around the fine wire using the method of Joule heating. The results showed that the natural convection heat transfer of air and water around the fine wire agreed well with Fand's correlation. Based on the aforementioned experiment, the natural convection heat transfer of molten salt LiNO3was studied by experiment and the same results were got. Therefore, the natural convection heat transfer of molten salt can be calculated by Fand's correlation, which takes into consideration the effect of viscosity dissipation.
Heat transfer in molten salt in a cylinder tank is studied via simulation and experiment to obtain its natural convection heat transfer in a single energy storage tank. Simulation and experimental results show that the natural convection heat transfer of water in a cylinder tank fits well with Garon＇s correlation. However, significant deviations occur when Garon＇s correlation is used to predict the natural convection heat transfer of molten salt because of its high viscosity and low thermal conductivity. However, the simulated data of the natural convection heat transfer of molten salt fit well with those of the experimental results Thus, a correlation that considers the effect of variable physical properties is proposed in this study to predict the natural con- vection heat transfer of molten salt. The deviation of the present data from the proposed correlation is less than ＋20%. The re- sults of this study can serve as a basis for the design of single energy storage tanks.
