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
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2026
Nuclear Technology
April 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
National labs drive nuclear innovations and uprates for the U.S. fleet
As the United States faces surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, and a push to bring manufacturing back home, Idaho National Laboratory is leading an effort to modernize and expand the nation’s nuclear power capabilities by revamping the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program.
Stephen King, Thien Nguyen, Yassin Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 7 | July 2024 | Pages 1245-1257
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2259699
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
New developments in porous media modeling have allowed for a new opportunity to implement experimental data for validation and verification. This includes velocity measurements using particle image velocimetry and global pressure drop measurements that are used to produce pressure drop correlations. We conducted such experiments on two very similar facilities of packed spheres by the authors of this paper. The results from the measurements are presented in this paper as a complete experimental study of a packed bed of smooth spheres through a two-prong approach. First, a set of global pressure drop correlations are validated with experimental data and presented as a function of porous Reynolds numbers. Second, the local velocity measurements from three depths spanning 2.4 sphere diameters are presented and further analyzed through the use of a normalized probability distribution function of the time-resolved velocity field. The conclusion of this paper is a suggestion for the results to be used in the creation or validation of computational fluid dynamics porous media models in the measured flow regimes for a packed bed of smooth spheres with an aspect ratio between the sphere diameter and the empty column diameter of 4.4.