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Large-scale turbulent flow around a cylinder in counterflow superfluid4He (He (II))

Nature Physics volume 1, pages 36–38 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

The detailed nature of fluid flow over a cylinder is one of the fundamental topics in classical fluid dynamics as it demonstrates flow separation and vortex shedding1. In superfluid helium, either He (II) or the B phase of3He, an important question has been to what extent these quantum fluids show classical fluid turbulent states2,3,4. Although the existence of turbulent structures can be inferred using precise instrumentation5,6, direct visualization of the flow field can provide unequivocal evidence of these phenomena. Here we show the existence of large turbulent structures in He (II) counterflow across a cylinder as obtained by the particle image velocimetry technique. Compared with classical fluid flow, the particle motion driven by He (II) counterflow shows macroscopic eddies downstream of the cylinder but also similar structures are observed in front of the cylinder, behaviour not seen in classical fluids. As Landau’s two-fluid model7 for He (II) describes counterflow as the relative motion of the superfluid and normal fluid components, the current results indicate that both components may be undergoing a kind of flow separation as they pass over the cylinder.

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Figure 1: Particle seeding in a He (II) counterflow channel containing a 6.35 mm transparent cylinder.
Figure 2: Measured particle velocity field (vmean) around the 6.35 mm outer diameter cylinder in counterflow He (II).
Figure 3: Computed streamlines for particle motion for the two heat flux cases in Fig. 2.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation, Division of Chemical Transport Systems and by the Department of Energy, Division of High Energy Physics. The authors would like to thank L. Lourenco, S. Fuzier and S. Maier for assistance in performing these experiments.

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  1. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive, Tallahassee, Florida 32310, USA

    Tao Zhang & Steven W. Van Sciver

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  1. Tao Zhang
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Correspondence to Steven W. Van Sciver.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Supplementary Information

This file contains a video image of the particle motion around the cylinder at 2.03 K produced by an 11.2 kW/m2 steady heat current through the He II from below. This flux corresponds to a vortex line density of about 2.6 x 1010 m/m3 and an average line spacing of about 6.2 μm. The particles are 1.7 μm diameter polymer micro-spheres with a specific gravity of 1.1. (SWF 2665 kb)

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Zhang, T., Van Sciver, S. Large-scale turbulent flow around a cylinder in counterflow superfluid4He (He (II)). Nature Phys 1, 36–38 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys114

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