Sphere on a vibrating reed for measurements of turbulence in superfluid helium

A modification of the vibrating reed, in which a massive sphere is made to oscillate at the end of a cantilevered beam, has been used for measurements in superfluid helium. The apparatus operates in the same way as a conventional vibrating reed with capacitive detection and drive. However, when operating submerged in the liquid, the frequency changes give information on the superfluid fraction, and the dissipation can be used to obtain information on the change of liquid flow, from laminar to turbulent. The spherical geometry allows an exact calculation of all parameters in the laminar regime, so departures due to the turbulence can be better quantified. The method has been found to work well in practice, and some measurements on the turbulent regime in the superfluid are presented