TY - JOUR
T1 - Velocity spectra of superfluid turbulence
AU - Kivotides, D.
AU - Vassilicos, C. J.
AU - Samuels, D. C.
AU - Barenghi, C. F.
PY - 2002/3/15
Y1 - 2002/3/15
N2 - We study numerically statistics of superfluid turbulence. We generate a quantized superfiuid vortex tangle driven by a realistic model of normal-fluid turbulence whose energy spectrum obeys Kolmogorov's classical k-5/3 law, where k is the wave number. We find that the resulting superfluid velocity spectrum has approximately a k-1 -dependence for wave numbers of the order of 1/δ and larger, where δ is the average intervortex spacing. This result is similar to what happens in a pure superflow. We also find that the spectrum of the total velocity field follows the classical k-5/3 law, even at temperatures low enough that the normal-fluid mass is only 5% of the total helium mass. We discuss our assumptions and results in view of recent experiments.
AB - We study numerically statistics of superfluid turbulence. We generate a quantized superfiuid vortex tangle driven by a realistic model of normal-fluid turbulence whose energy spectrum obeys Kolmogorov's classical k-5/3 law, where k is the wave number. We find that the resulting superfluid velocity spectrum has approximately a k-1 -dependence for wave numbers of the order of 1/δ and larger, where δ is the average intervortex spacing. This result is similar to what happens in a pure superflow. We also find that the spectrum of the total velocity field follows the classical k-5/3 law, even at temperatures low enough that the normal-fluid mass is only 5% of the total helium mass. We discuss our assumptions and results in view of recent experiments.
KW - vortices and turbulence
KW - hydrodynamic aspects of superfluidity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036340263&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1209/epl/i2002-00588-3
DO - 10.1209/epl/i2002-00588-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036340263
VL - 57
SP - 845
EP - 851
JO - EPL: A Letters Journal Exploring the Frontiers of Physics
JF - EPL: A Letters Journal Exploring the Frontiers of Physics
SN - 0295-5075
IS - 6
ER -