Discrepancies in Critical-Heat-Flux Data Obtained Using Thin-Wire Heaters in Saturated Liquid Helium II

It is often necessary for an engineer to design equipment with cooling loads such that the film-boiling regime is never reached. In a steam plant, the onset of film boiling would burn out the tubes. Similarly, if a superconductor submerged in liquid He were to form a film, the ensuing temperature rise would in all likelihood make it go normal, which, if the electrical current were large, could result in fusion of the wire. Knowledge of the magnitude of the heat flux required to initiate this film (commonly referred to as the critical, peak, maximum, or burnout heat flux) is therefore of particular interest.