Comparison of cavitation flows in He I and He II Original Research Article

This paper describes some of the results of an experimental study on the cavitation phenomena in He II and He I by the visualization and the measurements of the pressure and the temperature. The cavitation flow is generated in liquid helium driven by a bellows pump in the downstream region of the throat in a Venturi channel with a rectangular cross section. It is found that there are some definite differences in the appearance of cavitation between He I and He II flows, and that the λ-phase transition from He I to He II is sometimes induced because of the temperature drop in cavitating He I flow. In addition, the expression for the relation between the amount of the temperature drop induced by cavitation and the void fraction was described, which was found to be qualitatively in good agreement with the experimental result.