CHIMERA: Couette Hydrodynamics for the Investigation of Multi-fluid Extreme-Reynolds Turbulence in Annuli
Abstract
The CHIMERA (Couette Hydrodynamics for the Investigation of Multi-fluid Extreme-Reynolds Turbulence in Annuli) apparatus has been developed to investigate turbulent momentum transport in a canonical wall-driven flow using a wide variety of working fluids, from room-temperature gases to normal and superfluid helium. We present the design and characterization of a cryogenic Taylor-Couette facility in which torque is measured on a suspended outer cylinder using a torsion-pendulum sensor and a non-contact optical readout. This configuration avoids the need for cryogenic torque transducers or electrical instrumentation inside the cryostat while providing high sensitivity over a wide dynamic range. Measurements performed in gaseous helium at room temperature and in normal liquid helium reach Reynolds numbers up to 106 and agree well with established torque correlations, validating the apparatus over more than five decades in Reynolds number. Beyond providing such an exceptionally broad operating range with a single experimental facility and a single torque sensor, the principal motivation of CHIMERA is to enable direct comparisons of turbulent momentum transport in He I and He II under identical boundary conditions. By combining the same geometry and the same global torque diagnostic in both classical and quantum fluids, the apparatus provides a unique platform for investigating how wall-driven turbulence and its scaling evolve across the superfluid transition.
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BibTeX
@misc{diribarne2026chimera,
title = {{CHIMERA: Couette Hydrodynamics for the Investigation of Multi-fluid Extreme-Reynolds Turbulence in Annuli}},
author = {Pantxo Diribarne and Jérôme Chartier and Jérôme Duplat and Bernard Rousset},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.23396},
eprint = {2605.23396},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23396},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - CHIMERA: Couette Hydrodynamics for the Investigation of Multi-fluid Extreme-Reynolds Turbulence in Annuli
AU - Pantxo Diribarne
AU - Jérôme Chartier
AU - Jérôme Duplat
AU - Bernard Rousset
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.23396
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.23396
AB - The CHIMERA (Couette Hydrodynamics for the Investigation of Multi-fluid Extreme-Reynolds Turbulence in Annuli) apparatus has been developed to investigate turbulent momentum transport in a canonical wall-driven flow using a wide variety of working fluids, from room-temperature gases to normal and superfluid helium. We present the design and characterization of a cryogenic Taylor-Couette facility in which torque is measured on a suspended outer cylinder using a torsion-pendulum sensor and a non-contact optical readout. This configuration avoids the need for cryogenic torque transducers or electrical instrumentation inside the cryostat while providing high sensitivity over a wide dynamic range. Measurements performed in gaseous helium at room temperature and in normal liquid helium reach Reynolds numbers up to 106 and agree well with established torque correlations, validating the apparatus over more than five decades in Reynolds number. Beyond providing such an exceptionally broad operating range with a single experimental facility and a single torque sensor, the principal motivation of CHIMERA is to enable direct comparisons of turbulent momentum transport in He I and He II under identical boundary conditions. By combining the same geometry and the same global torque diagnostic in both classical and quantum fluids, the apparatus provides a unique platform for investigating how wall-driven turbulence and its scaling evolve across the superfluid transition.
ER -