Heat rectification in He II counterflow in radial geometries

Abstract We consider heat rectification in radial flows of turbulent helium II, where heat flux is not described by Fourier's law, but by a more general law. This is different from previous analyses of heat rectification, based on such law. In our simplified analysis we show that the coupling between heat flux and the gradient of vortex line density plays a decisive role in such rectification. Such rectification will be low at low and high values of the heat rate, but it may exhibit a very high value at an intermediate value of the heat rate. In particular, for a given range of values for the incoming heat ow, the outgoing heat flow corresponding to the exchange of internal and external temperatures would be very small. This would imply difficulties in heat removal in a given range of temperature gradients.