Shell Model for Drag Reduction with Polymer Additive in Homogeneous Turbulence

Recent direct numerical simulations of the FENE-P model of non-Newtonian hydrodynamics revealed that the phenomenon of drag reduction by polymer additives exists (albeit in reduced form) also in homogeneous turbulence. We introduce here a simple shell model for homogeneous viscoelastic flows that recaptures the essential observations of the full simulations. The simplicity of the shell model allows us to offer a transparent explanation of the main observations. It is shown that the mechanism for drag reduction operates mainly on the large scales. Understanding the mechanism allows us to predict how the amount of drag reduction depends of the various parameters in the model. The main conclusion is that drag reduction is not a universal phenomenon, it peaks in a window of parameters like Reynolds number and the relaxation rate of the polymer

Specific Heat of Liquid Helium in Zero Gravity very near the Lambda Point

We report the details and revised analysis of an experiment to measure the specific heat of helium with subnanokelvin temperature resolution near the lambda point. The measurements were made at the vapor pressure spanning the region from 22 mK below the superfluid transition to 4 uK above. The experiment was performed in earth orbit to reduce the rounding of the transition caused by gravitationally induced pressure gradients on earth. Specific heat measurements were made deep in the asymptotic region to within 2 nK of the transition. No evidence of rounding was found to this resolution. The optimum value of the critical exponent describing the specific heat singularity was found to be a = -0.0127+ - 0.0003. This is bracketed by two recent estimates based on renormalization group techniques, but is slightly outside the range of the error of the most recent result. The ratio of the coefficients of the leading order singularity on the two sides of the transition is A+/A- =1.053+ - 0.002, which agrees well with a recent estimate. By combining the specific heat and superfluid density exponents a test of the Josephson scaling relation can be made. Excellent agreement is found based on high precision measurements of the superfluid density made elsewhere. These results represent the most precise tests of theoretical predictions for critical phenomena to date.Comment: 27 Pages, 20 Figure