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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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NECX debut: Shaping the next era of energy
The sold-out inaugural Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX) got off to a roaring start in Atlanta, Ga., Tuesday morning with an opening plenary that was a live highlight reel discussing the latest industry achievements.
Starting with a lively promo video that left the audience amped up for Entergy’s CEO and NEI chair Drew Marsh, who welcomed everyone to the event, hosted jointly by the American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute. He spoke to a full house of more than 1,300 attendees, promising a blend of science, technology, policy, and advocacy centered around the future of nuclear energy.
Binqi Hao, He Zhou, Xiaofeng Li, Zu’An Wang, Shunyang Li, Pengfei Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 11 | November 2024 | Pages 2159-2186
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2311978
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The elliptical U-tube heat exchanger (EUTHE) is widely used in various cooling systems of nuclear engineering for its simple geometrical structure and small space cost. In this paper, a two-phase flow field model of an EUTHE is constructed to analyze the flow characteristics in the elbow zone under different structures with the influence mechanism of droplet motion and liquid film distribution. The Taguchi method is used to investigate the influence of heat transfer performance by structural parameters, and the fitted model is analyzed by regression analysis as well as ANOVA to ensure the accuracy of the prediction results.
The results show that thick tubes have a wider liquid film distribution because they are more difficult to trap droplets, achieving high heat transfer capacity while reducing separation efficiency and pressure drop. In addition, the heat transfer capacity and the pressure drop are mostly improved by the increase of the U-tube cross-section long axis length (L2) at the expense of reduced separation efficiency. The optimal cases for each target were obtained by analyzing the influence mechanism of each structural factor, for example, the largest heating tube section (L1) and the U-tube cross-section long axis length (L2), to determine which will lead to the highest heat transfer capacity, which mainly is due to the fact that an increase in these factors leads to the increment of contact area between the fluid and the wall. This work provides a guideline for the design of EUTHE and brings greater benefits to the development of nuclear engineering.