Coupled dynamics of quantized vortices and normal fluid in superfluid He4 based on the lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

We investigate the coupled dynamics of quantized vortices and normal fluid in superfluid 4 He at finite temperatures using a numerical approach based on the vortex filament model and lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The LBM allows us to simulate a fluid flow with only local operations, i.e., rather than solving the Navier-Stoles (NS) equations directly, a fluid flow is considered a convection of mesoscopic particles between sites on a lattice grid. Although the two-fluid nature of He II makes its flow complex, the particlelike treatment of the normal fluid in the LBM significantly reduces the complexity. We confirm, by comparing to results obtained with direct NS simulations, that the proposed numerical approach reproduces characteristic flow structures. We also demonstrate that the proposed computational approach is suitable for a thermal counterflow simulation with a solid boundary to elucidate a thermal boundary layer near a heater in a closed channel.