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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
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
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May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Javier Martínez, Elia Merzari, Michael Acton, Emilio Baglietto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 2 | February 2020 | Pages 266-282
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1595312
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Turbulent flow inside a modified differentially heated cavity at high Rayleigh number (Ra ~ 109) has been studied through fully resolved direct numerical simulation (DNS) using the high-order spectral element method code Nek5000. The flow configuration includes two separate physical phenomena: the natural recirculation itself, and the flow inside a curved channel. Simulations have been carried out using both the Boussinesq approximation and the low-Mach compressible formulation. Significant discrepancies between the two methods inform of the extreme caution that should be exercised when using the Boussinesq approximation in the limits of its applicability. The DNS solutions are analyzed in terms of polynomial-order convergence and Reynolds stress budgets, and the turbulence quantities and velocity profiles are presented as a reference for the validation of turbulence models.