Transition to ballistic regime for heat transport in helium II
The size-dependent and flux-dependent effective thermal conductivity of narrow capillaries filled with superfluid helium is analyzed from a thermodynamic continuum perspective. The classical Landau evaluation of the effective thermal conductivity of quiescent superfluid, or the Gorter-Mellinck regime of turbulent superfluids, are extended to describe the transition to ballistic regime in narrow channels wherein the radius $R$ is comparable to (or smaller than) the phonon mean-free path $\ell$ in superfluid helium. To do so we start from an extended equation for the heat flux incorporating non-local terms, and take into consideration a heat slip flow along the walls of the tube. This leads f…
Refrigeration of an array of cylindrical nanosystems by superfluid helium counterflow
Abstract Motivated by the challenge of computer refrigeration, we study the limits set by the transition to quantum turbulence on the cooling of an array of heat-producing cylindrical nanosystems by means of superfluid-helium counterflow. The effective thermal conductivity in laminar counterflow superfluid helium is obtained in channels with rectangular cross section, through arrays of mutually parallel cylinders and in the combined situation of arrays of orthogonal cylinders inside the rectangular channel. The maximum cooling capacity is analyzed on the condition that turbulence is avoided and that the highest temperature does not exceed the lambda temperature.
Generalized heat equation and transitions between different heat-transport regimes in narrow stripes
Abstract In the framework of weakly nonlocal thermodynamic theory, in this paper we derive a nonlocal and nonlinear heat-transport equation beyond the Fourier law by means of thermodynamic considerations in agreement with the second law. The obtained equation describes the transitions among different heat-transport regimes. The stability of the solution of that equation is also analyzed in a special case.
Thermodynamics of computation and linear stability limits of superfluid refrigeration of a model computing array
We analyze the stability of the temperature profile of an array of computing nanodevices refrigerated by flowing superfluid helium, under variations in temperature, computing rate, and barycentric velocity of helium. It turns out that if the variation in dissipated energy per bit with respect to temperature variations is higher than some critical values, proportional to the effective thermal conductivity of the array, then the steady-state temperature profiles become unstable and refrigeration efficiency is lost. Furthermore, a restriction on the maximum rate of variation in the local computation rate is found.