Effect of spray cooling on heat transfer in a two-phase helium flow

In this paper, we describe an experimental study of the phenomenon of spray cooling in the case of liquid helium, either normal or superfluid, and its relationship to the heat transfer between an atomized diphasic flow contained in a long pipe, and the pipe walls. This situation is discussed in the context of the cooling of the superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Experiments were conducted in a test loop reproducing the LHC cooling system, in which the vapor velocity and temperature could be varied in a large range. Shear induced atomization results in the generation of a droplet mist which was characterized by optical means. The thin liquid film deposited on the walls by the mist was measured using interdigitated capacitors. The cooling power of the mist was measured using thermal probes, and correlated to the local mist density. Analysis of the results shows that superfluidity has only a limited influence on both the film thickness and the mist cooling power. Using a simple model, we show that the phenomenon of spray cooling accounts for the measured non linearity of the global heat transfer. Finally, we discuss the relevance of our results for cooling the final focus magnets (inner triplets) in an upgraded version of the LHC.