Cryogenic turbulence test facilities at CEA/SBT

Bernard Rousset (1) , Christophe Baudet (2) , Michel Bon-Mardion (1) , Mickaël Bourgoin (2) , A Braslau (3) , François Daviaud (3) , Pantxo Diribarne (1) , Bérengère Dubrulle (3) , Yves Gagne (1, 2) , Basile Gallet (3) , Mathieu Gibert (4) , Antoine Girard (1) , Thierry Lehner (5) , I Moukharski (3) , F Sy (1, 2)

1 SBT - Service des Basses Températures
2 LEGI - Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels [Grenoble]
3 SPHYNX - Systèmes Physiques Hors-équilibre, hYdrodynamique, éNergie et compleXes
4 NEEL - HELFA - Hélium : du fondamental aux applications
5 LUTH (UMR_8102) - Laboratoire Univers et Théories

Recently, CEA Grenoble SBT has designed, built and tested three liquid helium facilities dedicated to turbulence studies. All these experiments can operate either in HeI or HeII within the same campaign. The three facilities utilize moving parts inside liquid helium. The SHREK experiment is a von Kármán swirling flow between 0.72 m diameter counterrotating disks equipped with blades. The HeJet facility is used to produce a liquid helium free jet inside a 0.200 m I.D., 0.47 m length stainless steel cylindrical testing chamber. The OGRES experiment consists of an optical cryostat equipped with a particle injection device and an oscillating grid. We detail specific techniques employed to accommodate these stringent specifications. Solutions for operating these facilities without bubbles nor boiling/cavitation are described. Control parameters as well as Reynolds number and temperature ranges are given.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Bernard Rousset, Christophe Baudet, Michel Bon-Mardion, Mickaël Bourgoin, A Braslau, et al.. Cryogenic turbulence test facilities at CEA/SBT. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2015, 101 (1), pp.012187. ⟨10.1088/1757-899X/101/1/012187⟩. ⟨cea-01367182⟩