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Visualisation of Convective Flow Patterns in Liquid Helium

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Abstract

The advantages of using liquid helium as the investigative fluid in Rayleigh-Bénard experiments are reviewed. A low temperature shadowgraphy apparatus is described that permits convective flow pattern visualisation in liquid helium, thus overcoming the main disadvantage until now of using quantum fluids. The factors involved in maximising the optical resolution for both the shadowgraph and schlieren methods are examined for several fluids and this discussion is applied to the low temperature apparatus in assessing its performance. Some preliminary results on pattern formation in liquid helium are presented.

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Author notes

  1. A. L. Woodcraft

    Present address: Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics and Materials Science Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, England

    A. L. Woodcraft, P. G. J. Lucas, R. G. Matley & W. Y. T. Wong

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  1. A. L. Woodcraft
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  2. P. G. J. Lucas
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  3. R. G. Matley
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Woodcraft, A.L., Lucas, P.G.J., Matley, R.G. et al. Visualisation of Convective Flow Patterns in Liquid Helium. Journal of Low Temperature Physics 114, 109–134 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021849819891

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