Superfluid helium as a technical coolant

The characteristics of superfluid helium as a technical coolant, which derive from its specific transport properties, are presented with particular reference to the working area in the phase diagram (saturated or pressurised helium II). We then review the principles and scaling laws of heat transport by equivalent conduction and by forced convection in pressurised helium II, thus revealing intrinsic limitations as well as technological shortcomings of these cooling methods. Once properly implemented, two-phase flow of saturated helium II presents overwhelming advantages over the previous solutions, which dictated its choice for cooling below 1.9 K the long strings of superconducting magnets in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 26.7 km circumference particle collider now under construction at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics near Geneva (Switzerland). We report on recent results from the ongoing research and development programme conducted on thermohydraulics of two-phase saturated helium II flows, and on the validation of design choices for the LHC cooling system.