Experimental investigation on transcritical heat transfer in He II

The propagation of plane second-sound waves has been investigated in a quadratic channel of 2.6x2.6 cm2 cross section and 8 cm length. The evolution of temperature, counterflow velocity, and superfluid vortex-line density has been measured. In agreement with current theories, the initial value of the vortex-line density remaining from the previous heat pulse increases induced by the counterflow velocity. If during the passage of the pulse enough vortex lines have been produced, the mutual friction force leads to a decrease of the counterflow velocity and hence of the heat flux. Then near the heater the energy is stored leading to a large rise in temperature instead of being transported by the second-sound wave. Further downstream, the mutual friction force is less significant, due to the decrease in counterflow velocity, resulting in the production of fewer superfluid vortex lines. Thus a (strongly damped) second-sound propagation takes place, superimposed by a diffusion process that causes the pulse to diverge during propagation. From a large number of temperature measurements, a criterion for the occurence of supercritical heat transport has been derived, taking into account bath temperature, pulse duration, heat flux and, in addition, the repetition rate, thus leading to a better approach to the measured values than current theories. (orig.)