Abstract
The superfluid shock-tube facility has been developed as a versatile tool for general research of low-temperature thermo-fluid dynamic phenomena. The shock tube was designed to be operated with the He II-filled test section immersed in superfluid helium. A gasdynamic shock wave impinging onto a He II-free surface generates a transmitted compression shock wave (of first sound origin) and thermal shock wave (of second sound origin) as the genuine temperature wave in He II. The target physical phenomena in the He II are measured using pressure transducers and superconductive temperature sensors, by applying a laser beam refraction method and with the aid of some optical visualization methods. In this study, the general superfluid thermodynamic performance of shock waves in the facility is investigated to verify the validity of the facility under a wide range of experimental conditions.
