Stability of Taylor–Couette flow in superfluid helium in the presence of superfluid vortex lines

Abstract

Taylor-Couette flow between two coaxial cylinders with a rotating inner cylinder and a fixed outer cylinder has been investigated in the temperature range from 1.45 to 2.15 K. The density of quantized vortex lines in the gap between the cylinders was measured by analyzing the damping of azimuthal second-sound resonances. Increasing the angular velocity of the inner cylinder the first appearance of quantized vortices was detected at a critical angular velocity of no. The onset of the Taylor instability occurred at a critical Reynolds number Re c which appeared to be temperature dependent. In agreement with theoretical predictions the experimental results show that the presence of quantized vortex lines strongly influences the stability of the flow field.