Abstract: At the downstream of the spacer grid in a PWR fuel assembly, local disturbance damps out along the flow direction and the flow returns to stable eventually. The turbulent flow and mixing behavior of the coolant are key factors affecting the economy and safety of a nuclear reactor, and need in-depth investigations. In the present paper, the turbulent flow of water in a 3×3 rod bundle was studied using PIV (particle image velocimetry) and CFD. First-order mean velocity and second-order turbulent statistics were obtained. It is found that the velocity in the central subchannel is higher than that in the gap region, but the streamwise root-mean-square velocity behaves inversely. Large-scale flow pulsation induced by the strong streamwise velocity gradient between adjacent subchannels, is observed in the rod bundle, and the wave length increases with Reynolds numbers. In addition, the measured turbulent mixing coefficient is 10% higher than that predicted by the Castellana correlation for PWRs, but this deviation reduces with the increase of Reynolds numbers.