Measurement of the Normal-Fluid Velocity in Superuids

Demosthenes Kivotides,
1
Carlo F. Barenghi,
1
and Yuri A. Sergeev
2
1
School of Mathematics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
2
School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, United Kingdom
(Received 17 June 2005; published 17 November 2005)
Numerical calculations of (nite temperature) superuid vortex ring propagation against a particulate
sheet show that the solid particle trajectories collapse to a very good approximation to the normal-uid
path lines. We propose an experiment in which, by measuring the solid particles velocities, direct
information about the instantaneous normal-uid velocity values could be obtained.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.215302 PACS numbers: 67.40.Vs, 47.37.+q, 47.55.Kf
At sufciently macroscopic spacetime scales, thermal
superuids can be described by a classical two uid theory.
In such a theory, the collective motion of the quantum
ground state corresponds to the ow of an inviscid uid
called superuid. On the other hand, the dynamics of the
quasiparticle excitations of the ground state (assumed to be
in local thermal equilibrium) correspond to the ow of a
conventional viscous uid called normal uid. A serious
problem which has put superuid mechanics research at a
disadvantage [1] with respect to conventional uid dynam-
ics is the inability of previously employed experimental
techniques to measure directly the velocities of the two
uids involved. There are only a few experiments in which
the normal ow pattern was directly detected. Recently, a
number of experiments [2,3] were performed in which
small micron-size solid particles were introduced as a third
component in the thermal superuid and their velocity was
measured using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) tech-
nique. Subsequently, the Poole-Barenghi-Sergeev-Vinen
(PBSV) equations [4] were proposed to describe the dy-
namics of the solid phase. These equations assume that the
volume fraction of solid particles is small enough for the
backreaction of the particles on the uids, as well as for
particle-particle interactions to be ignored (known as one-
way coupling [5]). In this Letter, we investigate the rela-
tively simple problem of a superuid vortex ring (an object
well known in the helium II literature) propagation against
a particulate sheet at nite temperature. By employing
numerical and computational methods, we solve the full
dynamical equations for the multiphase system. We show
that, due to the strength of the Stokes force, the trajectories
of the solid particles collapse to a very good approximation
to the path lines of the normal uid. Thus, the measurement
of the solid particle velocities could provide (for the rst
time) direct information about the instantaneous normal-
uid ow pattern.
If S((, i) is the three-dimensional representation of su-
peruid line vortices (where ( is the arclength parametri-
zation along the loops), then its motion obeys the Idowu-
Kivotides-Barenghi-Samuels equation [6]:
J
i
S V
l
hV
s
+h

S
/
(V
n
V
s
) h

S
/
(S
/
V
n
),
(1)
where the superuid velocity V
s
is given by the Biot-Savart
integral:
V
s
(x)
k
4r
Z
J(
S
/
(S x)
}S x}
3
, (2)
i is time, x is space, k is the quantum of circulation, V
n
is
the velocity of the normal uid, S
/
JS,J( is the unit
tangent vector, and h, h

, and h

are known mutual

friction coefcients. Note that, in conformity with the
one-way coupling assumption, Eq. (1) contains no inu-
ence of the particles on the vortex dynamics. The technique
to desingularize the Biot-Savart integral is well known [7],
and it is based on splitting the velocity into a nonlocal and a
local contribution (which is asymptotically estimated). The
motion of the normal uid is governed by the forced,
incompressible Navier-Stokes equation:

i
V
n
+(V
n
r)V
n

1

r +:\
2
V
n
+
1

n
F, (3)
r V
n
0, (4)
where
n
is the density of the normal uid, is the total
density of the uid, is the pressure, : ,
n
is the
kinematic viscosity (being the dynamic viscosity), and F
is the mutual friction force per unit volume.
The latter is being calculated from the sum of the drag
and Iordanskii forces per unit vortex length, f:
f
s
kJ

S
/
(S
/
(V
n
V
l
))

s
kJ

S
/
(V
n
V
l
), (5)
where
s
is the density of the superuid and the dimen-
sionless terms J

, J

are known mutual friction coef-

cients. In the case of multiphase superuids, N

spherical
solid particles are added to the system. The particles are
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0031-9007,05,95(21),215302(4)$23.00 215302-1 2005 The American Physical Society
assumed to be neutrally buoyant; that is, they do not suffer
any Archimedean force because their density

is

. Their physics is fully described by the 3N

component
vector functions X
p
(i) and V
p
(i), which refer, respectively,
to the position and velocities of the particles. These quan-
tities evolve according to the PBSVequations [4]:
J
i
X
p
V
p
, (6)
J
i
V
p

V
n
V
p
r

(
i
V
n
+(V
n
r)V
n
)
+

(
i
V
s
+(V
s
r)V
s
). (7)
Here r

o
2
,3 is the Stokes momentum response
time, o is the particle radius, and V
n
V
n
(X
p
, i) and
V
s
V
s
(X
p
, i) are, respectively, the normal-uid and su-
peruid velocities at the particles position. The particle
diameter 2o is a ow dependent quantity, since it must
always be much smaller than the smallest scale of the
normal-uid ow, as well as the intervortex line spacing,
in order to ensure that the assumptions behind the deriva-
tion of the PBSVequations hold true.
Finally, to track the path lines of N
n
normal-uid parti-
cles, the following system of ordinary differential equa-
tions for the particles positions X
n
needs to be added:
J
i
X
n
V
n
(X
n
, i). (8)
The PVBS equations neglect any effect induced by the
presence of an approaching particle on the superuid vor-
tex ring, in particular, that when the particle is very close,
the vortex bends towards it and pins to it. We shall see that
the presence of a normal-uid pattern near the vortex core
makes this unlikely. In any case, there is the possibility
that, in the PBSVapproximation, a particle which is acci-
dentally aimed exactly at a vortex core would accelerate to
innite speed, before slowing down when moving away
from the core. To remove this unphysical effect, we assume
that the motion of the particle is force-free at a distance to
the core less than that of the order of the discretization
length ( along the vortices, which, in itself, is of the order
of particle size. The full dynamical system is advanced in
time using a third order accurate, lowstorage, Runge-Kutta
method. Additional information about the Navier-Stokes
solver, as well as the Biot-Savart integration, is found in
Refs. [8,9].
The working uid being helium II, the quantum of
circulation has the value k 9.97 10
4
cm
2
,s. The
calculation is done at T 1.3 K, for which the parameters
of the problem have the values: : 23.30 10
4
cm
2
,s
(with the ratio k,: 0.42),
n
6.5 10
3
g,cm
3
,

s
138.6 10
3
g,cm
3
(with
s
,
n
21.323), h
0.978, h

4.0937 10
2
, h

2.175 10
2
, J

2.045 10
2
, and J

4.270 10
2
. The particle
diameter is chosen to be 2o 3.125 10
4
cm, which
is a typical value of the recent PIVexperiments.
Periodic boundary conditions are employed. The com-
putational box size is l
l
0.1 cm. Initially, a superuid
vortex ring with radius R

l
l
,4 is placed in the middle
of the box on the xz plane. The ring propagates in the
positive y direction towards a sheet consisting of 900 solid
particles (Fig. 1). The initial particulate sheet is in the plane
parallel to the plane of the ring at initial position y l
l
,4.
In addition, 900 normal-uid particles are placed at the
same positions of the solid particles. Initially, both uid
and solid particles have zero velocity and V
n
(x, i) 0.
The normal-uid pattern induced by a moving superuid
vortex ring is known [10]: The mutual friction induces in
the normal-uid closed streamline patterns with typical
length scale equal to the radius of the ring. It is also known
[10] that the rings Reynolds number Re u
/
l
l
,: (where
u
/
is the root mean square of the normal-uid velocity
uctuations) is of order unity. Therefore, we do not need
a ne resolution in the calculation of the Navier-Stokes
dynamics. Thus, the mesh is chosen to be 32
3
, which gives
a grid spacing x l
l
,32 3.125 10
3
cm. The same
resolution is chosen for the discretization of the superuid
vortex ring. Since the ring remains stable during its propa-
gation and the resulting superow is simple, this vortex
grid spacing is adequate. Note that, as required by consis-
tency, the particle radius is an order of magnitude smaller
than the grid sizes. Based on our knowledge [10] of the
ow, we expect normal-uid particles and solid particles to
move with almost identical velocities. Indeed, the momen-
tum response time r

represents the time needed for the

velocity of a buoyantly neutral solid particle which starts
from rest to become 63% [i.e., (e 1),e] of the free
stream normal-uid velocity [5]. Therefore, if the normal
and superow time scales are much larger than the Stokes
response time, it is expected that the particle trajectories
coincide with the normal-uid path lines. We nd that this
z
x
y
z
FIG. 1. Initial positions of the superuid vortex ring and the
particulate sheet.
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is indeed the case. Due to the very small rings Reynolds
number, the normal ow time scale is equal to the diffusive
time scale r
n
l
2
n
,: R
2

,: 0.268 s, where l
n
- R

,
as said above [10]. The superow time scale is r
s

l
2
s
,k R
2

,k 0.626 s, where l
s
- R

, since the ring

radius provides a curvature scale that characterizes the
induced superow. Here one notes the role played by the
particular uid choice: For
4
He-II, the ratio k,: is of order
unity over the typical experimental range. The Stokes
numbers St
s
r

,r
s
0.1246 10
3
and St
n

r

,r
n
0.291 10
3
are small, which suggests that for
this ow solid particle trajectories and normal-uid path
lines should coincide. In order to resolve the Stokes force
dynamics adequately, the time step i is chosen to be one-
third of the Stokes response time: i 0.2565 10
4
s.
The results for the particles positions are presented in
Figs. 24. It is readily seen in Fig. 2 that uid and solid
particles move together. Overall, the particulate sheet is
pushed in the y direction of the rings motion at different
rates for the various sheet positions. This effect is readily
explained: Initially, the uid particles have zero velocity;
afterwards, they move with the mutual friction induced
normal ow. It is known from Ref. [10] that there is a
normal-uid jet directed along the positive y axis along the
ring perimeter. The particles facing this jet directly are
pushed more than all other particles on the sheet, since
V
n
attains its highest values there. This explains the for-
mation of a ridge at sheet positions corresponding to the
ring outline. The four discernible protrusions which are
visible in Fig. 2 correspond to the sheets corners. Because
of the strength of the Stokes force, the previous analysis
also explains the trajectories of the solid particles. Note
that, due to the unsteady nature of the owin the laboratory
frame, there is no identication of streamlines and path
lines in this ow. Therefore, it is not expected that the path
lines will be similar to the closed streamlines of the in-
duced normal ow patterns reported in Ref. [10]. We have
chosen to stop the calculation when the ring reaches the
opposite face of the cubic box (had we let the ring reenter
-0.0134 -0.0132
0.0207
0.021
0.0213
z
A
R0
R1
B
x
z
FIG. 3. Details of the close interaction of a solid particle with
the vortex. Projection on the xz plane of the trajectory of a solid
particle positioned initially exactly opposite to the vortex ring
periphery. The particle moves from starting position A to posi-
tion B at nal time i 1.2061 s. Two ring contours (darker
lines) are also shown: R0 at i 0 s and R1 at i 0.1795 s. At
position R1, the rings y coordinate is still between the y
coordinates of R0 and A.
0.026
0.0265
0.027
y
0.0266
0.0274
y
FIG. 2. Vortex ring and solid particles congurations before
(top, at time i 0.5541 s) and after (bottom, at time i
0.5925 s) the ring has passed through the particulate sheet.
The uid and solid particles positions are graphically indistin-
guishable (see Fig. 4) and are, thus, marked with the same
symbol.
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the periodic box, we would have seen a renewed inter-
action with the deformed particulate sheet).
Figure 3 displays the projection of the trajectory (A B)
of a solid particle on the xz plane of the ring. The particular
particle chosen is initially exactly opposite to the vortex
ring, so its motion is greatly affected by the vortex. The
gure also shows parts of the vortex ring at two different
times (R0 at i 0 s and R1 at i 0.1795 s). This is to
stress that the rings radius changes, slowly shrinking due
to the friction with the normal uid. It is apparent that the
motion of the particle on the plane of the ring is nontrivial.
The normal-uid structure which has been revealed in
Ref. [10] sweeps the particle away from the vortex core
as shown. It is also apparent that the particles deection is
much smaller than the rings radius; this is why the con-
tours of the ring in Fig. 3 look almost straight on the scale
of the gure. Moreover, only 42 out of 900 particles used
approach the ring to a distance less than 3 times their
diameter; this suggests that our results do not depend on
the previously mentioned approximations underlying the
PBSVequations and that, essentially, the vortex ignores the
presence of the particles.
In order to quantify our conclusions, we have calculated
at each instance and for each solid particle: }V
n
V
p
},
}V
p
} and cos(V
n
, V
p
) (V
n
V
p
),(}V
n
}}V
p
}). Figure 4
shows histograms of these quantities, averages over all
particles from i 0.7873 s to i 0.8463 s. It is apparent
that the two velocities V
p
and V
n
are to a very good
approximation identical in magnitude and direction.
In the milieu of the current research, one could ponder
on whether the introduction of more detailed equations
describing the dynamics of the solid phase would modify
the present conclusions. In particular, forces such as the
Basset (history) force that incorporate viscous effects that
are nonlocal in time and model the drag associated with the
formation of boundary layers around the particles could
play an important role. However, previous studies [11]
have shown that the history term may be neglected when
St
n
<(2,9)(
n
,

)
1,2
. In the present case, this condition
corresponds to St
n
<1.05, which is satised. Moreover, if
the present conclusions carry over to thermal superuids
with turbulent normal uids, the insertion of a dilute
particle dispersion would make possible the measurement
of the normal-uid energy spectrum. Finally, according to
our results, the vortex ring experiment by Borner et al. [12]
is an ideal candidate for a successful application of the PIV
technique.
Research supported by EPSRC Grant No. GR/T08876/
01.
[1] D. Kivotides, Phys. Lett. A 326, 423 (2004).
[2] T. Zhang, D. Celik, and S. W. VanSciver, J. Low Temp.
Phys. 134, 985 (2004).
[3] T. Zhang and S. W. VanSciver, J. Low Temp. Phys. 138,
865 (2005).
[4] D. R. Poole, C. F. Barenghi, Y. A. Sergeev, and W. F.
Vinen, Phys. Rev. B 71, 064514 (2005).
[5] C. T. Crowe, M. Sommerfeld, and Y. Tsuji, Multiphase
Flows with Droplets and Particles (CRC Press, Baton
Roca, FL, 1997).
[6] O. C. Idowu, D. Kivotides, C. F. Barenghi, and D. C.
Samuels, J. Low Temp. Phys. 120, 269 (2000).
[7] K. W. Schwarz, Phys. Rev. B 31, 5782 (1985).
[8] O. C. Idowu, D. Kivotides, C. F. Barenghi, and D. C.
Samuels, Lect. Notes Phys. 571, 162 (2001).
[9] D. C. Samuels, Lect. Notes Phys. 571, 97 (2001).
[10] D. Kivotides, C. F. Barenghi, and D. C. Samuels, Science
290, 777 (2000).
[11] E. E. Michaelides, J. Fluids Eng. 125, 209 (2003).
[12] H. Borner, T. Schmeling, and D. W. Schmidt, Phys. Fluids
26, 1410 (1983).
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
1000
0.99992 0.99996 1
h
(
c
o
s
(
V
n
,
V
p
)
)
cos(V
n
,V
p
)
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
1000
4e-06 0.002
h
(
|
V
n
-
V
p
|
/
|
V
p
|
)
|V
n
-V
p
|/|V
p
|
FIG. 4. Histograms of the cosine of the angle between V
n
and V
p
(left, linear-log plot) and of the relative difference between V
n
and
V
p
(right, log-log plot). The vertical axes are divided by 1000 and time is i 0.8463 s.
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