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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.”
Rodolfo Vaghetto, Luigi Capone, Yassin A. Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 177 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 217-230
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A13367
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental activity was performed to observe and study the effects of graphite dispersion and deposition on thermal-hydraulic phenomena in a reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS). The small-scale RCCS experimental facility (16.5 × 16.5 × 30.4 cm) used for this activity represents half of the reactor cavity with an electrically heated vessel. Water flowing through five vertical pipes removes the heat produced in the vessel and releases it into the environment by mixing with cold water in a large tank. The particle image velocimetry technique was used to study the velocity field of the air inside the cavity. A set of 52 thermocouples was installed in the facility to monitor the temperature profiles of the vessel, pipe walls, and air. Ten grams of a fine graphite powder (average particle size 2 m) was injected into the cavity through a spraying nozzle placed at the bottom of the vessel. The temperatures and air velocity field were recorded and compared with the measurements obtained before the graphite dispersion, showing a decrease of the temperature surfaces that was related to an increase in their emissivity. The results contribute to the understanding of RCCS capability in an accident scenario.