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Division Spotlight
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
Veera R. Gutti, Sudarshan K. Loyalka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 2 | May 2009 | Pages 121-133
Technical Papers | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A7399
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thermophoresis causes particle deposition on nuclear reactor components from gas/vapor streams, both during normal and accident conditions, and it is of interest to develop good computational tools for estimation of such deposition. This paper describes a numerical technique to solve the coupled equations of energy and particle continuity. The numerical technique was verified by comparing the solution of the Graetz energy transport problem obtained by using the present numerical technique with the series solution. Thermophoretic deposition efficiency obtained from the present numerical technique agrees with the analytical solution for short tubes. Deposition efficiencies for the case RePr = 1 and Pr K = 1 are in good agreement with the published theoretical expressions for thermophoretic deposition efficiency. Also, the results from the numerical solution for thermophoretic deposition efficiency compare well with some experimental data published in the literature. Dependence of deposition efficiency on thermophoretic coefficient K was studied, and it was observed that the dependence is more linear for smaller thermal gradients than for the larger gradients. Further, the computational fluid dynamics program FLUENT® 6.3 was also used to explore calculations of the thermophoretic deposition efficiencies for some cases, and it was noted that results are sensitive to mesh size and that very fine mesh near the surface was needed for accurate results. The results computed are in good agreement with our numerical calculations and experimental data.