ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
M. P. Sharma, A. K. Nayak
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 184 | Number 2 | October 2016 | Pages 280-291
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-112
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is a vertical pressure tube–type, heavy water–moderated and boiling light water–cooled natural circulation–based reactor. The fuel bundle of an AHWR contains 54 fuel rods arranged in three concentric rings of 12, 18, and 24 fuel rods. This fuel bundle is divided into a number of imaginary interacting flow passages called subchannels. The transition from single-phase to two-phase flow occurs in a reactor rod bundle with an increase in power. Two-phase flow regimes like bubbly, slug/churn, and annular flow are normally encountered in a reactor rod bundle. Prediction of the thermal margin of the reactor necessitates the determination of the turbulent-mixing rate of the coolant among these subchannels under these flow regimes. Thus, it is vital to evaluate turbulent mixing between the subchannels of an AHWR rod bundle.
In this paper, experiments were carried out to determine the two-phase turbulent-mixing rate in different flow regimes in the simulated subchannels of the reactor. The size of the rod and the pitch in the test were the same as those of an actual rod bundle in the prototype. Three subchannels are considered in 1/12th of the cross section of the rod bundle. Water and air were used as the working fluid, and the turbulent-mixing tests were carried out at atmospheric conditions without addition of heat. The void fraction was varied from 0 to 0.8 under various ranges of superficial liquid velocity. The turbulent-mixing rate was experimentally determined by adding tracer fluid in one subchannel and measuring its concentration in other subchannels at the end of the flow path. The test data were compared with existing models in the literature. It was found that none of the models could predict the measured turbulent-mixing rate in the rod bundle of the reactor.