Abstract
The heat transfer characteristics of a fountain effect pump in a He II flow loop have been investi gated by experiments and numerical analyses. Temperatures at several points in the loop, pressure difference between both sides of the porous plug and mass flow rate of He II were measured in the experiments. The fountain effect is generated by heat-input at one side of the porous plug. In a closed-loop fountain effect pump, the temperature on the opposite side of the plug also increases even though heat is not input to that side. In this study, we show that a part of the heat-input is transported to the upstream side of the porous plug due to supercompnent flow (zero entropy flow) in the plug. Taking account of the distribution of the heat-input, heat transfer and the pressure drop in the loop and fountain effect at the plug, a model is proposed. From analyses based on the model, the temperature distribution in the loop, pressure difference between both sides of the porous plug and He II mass flow rate can be estimated accurately in the case of laminar flow in the plug.
