ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
James P. Blanchard, Qiyang Hu, Nasr Ghoniem
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 341-345
High Average Power Laser and Other IFE R&D | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8925
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dry wall laser IFE chambers will experience large, transient heat and particle fluxes as the target yield products reach the wall. These threats, consisting of x-rays, ions, and neutrons, can lead to wall failure caused by transient stresses or as a result of deposited ions in the near-surface layer. We have developed a unified model for the calculation of temperatures, stresses, strains, and fracture behavior in a solid IFE chamber wall. The model is also coupled with ion transport sub-models that assess the effects of ions on the morphology of the wall materials. This paper describes the models incorporated into the new unified simulation and, in particular, presents new fracture models that permit fracture calculations without the need for an advanced finite element calculation. This fracture model assumes that an array of surface cracks is present in the wall surface and uses superposition to calculate the stress intensity factor via a numerical integration of the stress profile computed for an un-cracked geometry. We also describe approaches for computing the stresses due to inertial effects resulting from the rapid heating associated with the IFE threats. In some cases, these inertial effects lead to stress waves that can lead to premature wall damage and must be accounted for in the analysis. This model is based on semi-analytical solutions for stress waves due to shallow heating in a relatively thick solid. The combined thermomechanical model gives us detailed understanding of the fundamental mechanics of rapidly heated surfaces.