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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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NRC’s hybrid AI workshop coming up
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will host a hybrid public workshop on September 24 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern time to discuss its activities for the safe and secure use of artificial intelligence in NRC-regulated activities.
Piyush Sabharwall, Vivek Utgikar, Fred Gunnerson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 2 | May 2009 | Pages 197-200
Technical Note | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A7406
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effect of the mass flow rate at constant velocity on the convective heat transfer coefficient of an incompressible fluid in a turbulent flow regime is presented with the help of dimensional analysis. The heat transfer coefficient decreases by ~10% with a threefold increase in the mass flow rate under these conditions, based on the commonly used Dittus-Boelter correlation for estimation of the heat transfer coefficient. On the other hand, an increase in the heat transfer coefficient is observed if the area is maintained constant. Doubling the mass flow rate will result in a 92% increase in the heat transfer coefficient. However, there is a concomitant increase in the pressure drop, proportional to the mass flow rate raised to 0.95. The pressure drop is predicted to decrease for the constant velocity case with an inverse dependence on the mass flow rate. The pressure drop considerations may be critical in certain situations (elevation of boiling point in case of a boiling heat transfer medium), and any benefit derived from the higher heat transfer coefficient may be lost because of the higher pressure drop across the heat exchanger in the constant area case.