Superheating limits of liquid helium I

✍ Scribed by D.N. Sinha; J.S. Semura; L.C. Brodie

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 487 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-2275
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-2275(82)90082-0

✦ Synopsis

It is shown that the maximum superheat temperature ATma x in liquid helium I, determined under staady-stata peak nucleate boiling conditions, cannot be realistically estimated from the thermodynamic limit of superheat (spinodal), as has been previously claimed. It is suggested that a more meaningful estimate of A Tmax can be obtained from the kinetic limit of super-heat (homogeneous nucleation temperature). Experimental data on the homogeneous nucleation superheat temperature, A Th, in liquid helium I over an extended temperature range are presented and compared with the A Trnax measurements of several investigators. It is pointed out that in any quantitative predictions of A Tmax, a knowledge of A Th alone is not sufficient. In fact, the measured value of A Tmax can lie either below or even above A Th depending on the bath temperature, conditions of the surface, and the thermophysical properties of both heater and liquid.