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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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!
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Latest News
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Bin Han, Bao-Wen Yang, Cen Wei, Yudong Zha
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 1 | January-February 2019 | Pages 68-76
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1506658
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The spacer grid is one of the most important parts of a fuel assembly for enhancing thermal-hydraulic performance. The mixing vane is a critical component of the spacer grid (or mixing vane grid) to produce lateral flow, turbulence, vortex, and other mixing mechanisms downstream of the grid. The design and arrangement of mixing vanes could influence the flow condition downstream, especially the lateral flow and vortex surrounding the rod bundle, which directly affect not only the hydraulics and heat transfer but also the critical heat flux. Understanding fundamental mixing characteristics is of great importance for fuel assembly design. Instead of using complicated geometries, this paper studies the lateral flow velocity and vortex in a simple 2 × 1 channel with a spacer grid in order to obtain the behavior of a single mixing vane and its effect on the downstream lateral velocity and vortex. Then, the effect of mixing vane arrangements on pressure drop is studied by researching the lateral velocity and vortex in the 2 × 1 channel with two mixing vanes. Several indexes that could reflect the mixing characteristics, such as lateral velocity and vortex, are introduced to assess the performance of the mixing vanes. Because of the presence of walls in both the experiment and the simulation, the lateral flow will reflect upon the impact of the obstruction walls or rods, which would cause vortex rotation. Rotation time and flow pattern are also studied in this paper. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are carried out to obtain the lateral velocity, the vortex angle, and its period of rotation. This work may be applied to the design and optimization of mixing vanes.