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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
F. C. Engel, R. A. Markley, A. A. Bishop
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 69 | Number 2 | February 1979 | Pages 290-296
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20618
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laminar, transition, and turbulent parallel flow pressure drop across wire-wrapped hexagonal rod bundles positioned inside a duct were determined in tests using water, sodium, and air. A smooth transition region from turbulent to laminar flow that occurred over the Reynolds number range from 5000 to 400 characterized the resulting friction factor behavior. The continuous transition region could be explained in terms of the fraction of the flow area in turbulent flow. Laminar friction factors calculated from individual subchannel measurements could be correlated by the same expression found for rod-bundle-averaged conditions. In the laminar range, the friction factor was correlated by the expression f = 110/Re, in the turbulent range by f = 0.55/Re0,25, and in the transition range by where is the intermittency factor. A general laminar flow friction factor correlation was developed: This correlation agrees satisfactorily with limited laminar flow data from rod bundles having different wire-wrap lead pitch-to-diameter ratios.