Research on conjugate heat transfer of water-cooled reflector plate in graphite heaters

Abstract The water-cooled reflector plate is an essential component of the graphite heater. It not only enhances heating efficiency through reflection but also provides a heat barrier between the ambient environment and the ultra-high temperature heating elements. When the graphite heater operates at ultra-high temperatures, the water-cooled reflector plate absorbs significant heat flux. To evaluate its cooling capacity and efficiency, this paper first proposes a method for estimating the cooling mass flow under heat flux boundary conditions. Then, the temperature response of the water-cooled reflector plate under varying mass flow rates is analyzed using a fluid-solid coupling conjugate heat transfer (CHT) method based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and the method is verified.