Tom SKS, Hauptman EG, The feasibility of cooling heavy-water reactors with supercritical fluids, Nuclear engineering and design 53, p 187-196, 1979 Tom et al. uses in his feasibility study the heat transfer correlation introduced by Kranoshchekov and Protopopov modified by a density-ration correction factor, which was later refined for calculation of heat transfer to supercritical CO2 at a normalized pressure (p/pcrit) 1.02 to 5.25. The pressure drop was calculated using the Kurawa and Protopopov correlation. Adelt M, Micielewicz, Heat transfer in a channel at supercritical pressure, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.24, pp. 1667-1674, 1981 Kurganov VA, Katil’ny AG, Velocity and enthalpy fields and eddy diffusivities in a heated supercritical fluid flow, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 1992; 5:465-478 Kurganov et al. investigated the velocity and temperature fields in a supercritical CO2 flow through a heated vertical circular tube (22.7mm). A comparative analysis is made for normal and deteriorated heat transfer flow structures, as well as in upward and downward direction. From these data, the profiles of shear stresses, heat fluxes and gradient coefficients of turbulent diffusivity in various cross sections of the tube have been found. In the conditions of normal heat transfer the flow structure resembles the structure of the one at constant properties, so that simple models of flow and heat transfer can be used to calculate the normal heat transfer. The tendency to develop deteriorated heat transfer, which only occurred with an upward flow, are associated with the reconstruction of the velocity and shear stress fields under the combined influence of the Archimedes forces (buoyancy) and the negative pressure gradient that accelerates the heated fluid flow. The formation of a fluid layer in the turbulent flow core with lower turbulent diffusivities causes the lowering value of the heat transfer coefficient. In that particular layer, the low values of the turbulent shear stresses and radial gradient of the velocity exist together with the maximum values of the convective acceleration of the flow. The formation of M-shaped velocity profiles in the upward flow reduces the tendency towards heat transfer deterioration. The Archimedes forces (buoyancy forces) compensate the effects of the thermal acceleration for a downward flow, which is favourable for keeping the flow structure near the normal heat transfer regime. Jiang PX, Zhang Y, Xu YJ, Shi RF, Experimental and numerical investigation of convection heat transfer of CO2 at supercritical pressures in a vertical tube at low Reynolds numbers, International Journal of Thermal Sciences 47 (2008) 998–1011 Jiang et al. performed an experimental and numerical investigation of the convection heat transfer of C02 at supercritical pressures in a vertical tube for laminar to turbulent flow. The influence of the inlet temperature, pressure, mass flow, heat flux, buoyancy and flow direction were investigated. An M-shape velocity distribution develops across the tube with increasing heat flux, due to the property variations and the buoyancy. This phenomenon becomes more evident as the heat flux and as x/d increases. For an upward flow and moderate heat fluxes, the local wall temperature does not increase continuously. For higher heat fluxes, the local wall temperature first increases along the tube, then decreases, and then increases again, with a second small decrease at the outlet due to the conduction along the wall. The first decrease of the the local wall temperature is due to transition from laminar to turbulent flow. The local wall temperature then increases again along the tube due to laminarization of the flow by the very strong buoyancy which reduces the convection heat transfer. For downward flow and high heat fluxes, the local wall temperature increases continuously along the tube with small decreases at the outlet due to conduction in the wall. The convection heat transfer did not deteriorate along the tube for downward flow as was observed for upward flow. The results indicate that for downward flow the buoyancy induces very early transition from laminar to turbulent flow (much earlier than for upward flow) which increases the heat transfer coefficient compared to that for upward flow with the same conditions. For the outer surface fluid temperature <Tpc, the HTC increases with increasing heat flux and then decreases with further increases in the heat flux for both upward and downward flows. For downward flow the decreases of the HTC with increasing heat flux for the higher heat fluxes were caused by variations of the thermophysical properties (sharp decreases of cp,λ,ρ). However, for upward flows, the decreases of the HTC with increasing heat flux for the higher heat fluxes were caused not only by the variations of the thermophysical properties, but also by laminarization of the turbulence by the buoyancy. Therefore, the HTCs for upward flow are less than for downward flow. For very high heat fluxes (e.g., 90.0 kW/m2), the HTCs for both upward and downward flows were very similar because the heat transfer is mainly controlled by the natural convection. For downward flow the buoyancy enhanced the heat transfer coefficients along the entire tube, while for upward flow the buoyancy enhanced the heat transfer coefficients only in the latter part of the tube. Generally, the difference between the local heat transfer coefficients for downward and upward flows was not evident in the latter part of the tube when very strong buoyancy effects were present.