Experimental investigation of heat transfer through porous media in superfluid helium

An experimental investigation of heat transfer through porous media in superfluid helium has been conducted in the framework of the development of porous electrical insulations for superconducting magnet cables cooled by superfluid helium. Several types of porous media with different characteristics were tested and, in particular, samples with pore size diameters of 0.1 mu m, 1 mu m, 2 mu m, 10 mu m and 20 mu m. Temperature and pressure were measured between an insulating inner bath and the cryostat bath, communicating only through the porous medium. The cryostat bath is held constant all along the measurement and, for each sample, the tests are performed for bath temperature from 1.4 K to 2.1 K with 0.1 K increment. Depending on the porous medium average pore size diameter, different flow regimes are observed: for porous media with a pore diameter of 0.1 and 1 mu m, only the Landau regime is observed whereas for porous media with a pore diameter of 2 mu m, we observed the Landau regime and the Gorter-Mellink regime. For samples with a pore diameter of 10 and 20 mu m, measurements only permitted to detect the Gorter-Mellink regime. In the laminar regime, the permeability of the samples was determined and it was found that the permeability is constant for bath temperature above 1.9 K whereas it increases as the bath temperature decreases from 1.8 K to 1.4 K. For samples with a pore size diameter of 10 and 20 mu m, measurement permits only to observe the turbulent regime and the analysis exhibits a constant average tortuosity for each samples, independently of the bath temperature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.