Towards the first direct measurement of the dynamic viscosity of gaseous tritium at cryogenic temperatures

Accurate values for the viscosity of the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium (T) at cryogenic temperatures are unavailable. Values for tritium found in literature are based on extrapolation by mass ratios as well as an empirical factor derived from hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D ) viscosity measurements, or classical kinetic theory which does not handle quantum effects. Accurate data of the tritium viscosity will help to improve the modelling of the viscosity of diatomic molecules and can be used as a test of their interaction potentials. With this contribution we report a major step towards a fully tritium and cryogenic temperature compatible setup for the accurate measurement of the viscosity of gases, using a spinning rotor gauge (SRG) at the Tritium Laboratory Karlsruhe. After calibration with helium, measurements with hydrogen and deuterium conducted at room temperature agree with literature values within 2%. The performance at liquid nitrogen (LN ) temperature has been successfully demonstrated with a second setup in a liquid nitrogen bath. Again after calibration with helium at LN temperature, the viscosities of H and D were determined and are in agreement with literature to about 2%

Viscosity measurements of gaseous H2 between 200 K to 300 K with a spinning rotor gauge

Experimental values for the viscosity of the radioactive hydrogen isotopologue tritium are still unknown in literature. Existing values from ab initio calculations disregard quantum mechanic effects and are therefore only good approximations for room temperature and above. To fill in these missing experimental values, a measurement setup has been designed, to measure the viscosity of gaseous hydrogen and its isotopologues (H$_2$, HD, HT, D$_2$, DT, T$_2$) at cryogenic temperatures. In this paper, the first results with this Cryogenic Viscosity Measurement Apparatus (Cryo-ViMA) of the viscosity of gaseous hydrogen between 200 K to 300 K are presented.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, 22nd International Vacuum Congress, submitted to e-Journal of Surface Science and Nanotechnolog