Rayleigh Disk Measurements in Pure Superflow

Author: Koehler, Thomas Richard

Year: 1960

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Pellam, John R.

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Physics

DOI: 10.7907/SVA4-VF24

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to verify whether the superfluid component of liquid helium, flowing through a stationary normal fluid background, would exert the same torque on a Rayleigh disk as expected for perfect potential flow in classical hydrodynamic. The disk was suspended by a fine quartz fiber in a "superfluid wind tunnel" which is a device for obtaining pure superfluid flow at temperatures other than zero degrees using the fountain effect to pump helium through a chamber closed at each end by a jewelers rouge plug. A disk 0.15 cm in radius was used with a quartz fiber of torsion constant of approximately 10(-5) dyne-cm deg, and the superfuid velocity was varied between .01 and 0.1 cm/sec. Observed torque showed the proper dependence on fluid velocity for each temperature investigated to within the experimental error of about ten percent. Also, by comparing results at different temperatures, it was possible to measure ps/p as a function of temperature. This parameter was determined at thirteen different temperatures between 1.11°K and 2.11°K, and the results obtained agreed with previously accepted values.

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