A modeling approach to account for unstable stratification, flow acceleration, and variable thermophysical properties for supercritical carbon dioxide

•Model consideres unstable stratification, flow acceleration, and variable thermophysical properties for sCO2•Results compared with data obtained for asymmetric heating conditions for sCO2 in the proximity of the pseudo-critical point.•An easy to implement and experimentally validated design correlation developed.•Proposed model and correlation predict the data with a MAPE of 25%.