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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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Michael F. Dowling, Jason D. Wartell, Sheldon M. Jeter, Said I. Abdel-Khalik
Nuclear Technology | Volume 117 | Number 3 | March 1997 | Pages 353-365
Technical Paper | Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT97-A35349
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A capacitance-type sensor whose sensitivity is sufficiently high to detect liquid water droplets in a stream of gas with very low moisture content is described. Instantaneous capacitance is measured for a probe consisting of two closely spaced parallel plates through which a two-phase mixture is flowing; the presence of liquid within the sensor’s active volume generates a measurable capacitance increase due to the much higher dielectric constant of liquid water compared with gas or steam. Proof-of-concept experiments were carried out to determine the relative effects of droplet size, velocity, and position on the output of the sensor. The probe detected individual water droplets in the range of 7.5 to 20.0 μl and had a voltage output that was linear with droplet volume in this range. In addition, the signal pulse width was found to be a sensitive indicator of droplet velocity. The data indicate that the probe can be used to measure the moisture fraction of a high-quality gas flow in the range from 0 < β <0.013 (liquid volume/total volume) with a maximum standard deviation of ∼0.001.