Applications of the quartz tuning fork in classical and superfluid hydrodynamics

Abstract

We present a short review of the multitude of applications of the commercially produced quartz tuning fork in cryogenic fluid dynamics, using cold gaseous, normal liquid and superfluid 4He as working fluids with extraordinary, but well-known and tunable physical properties. While the central focus of this work is the use of the tuning fork as a detector of classical and quantum turbulence, we also report other studies and applications, mainly on cavitation, pressure-, thermo- and viscosimetry. Finally, we mention briefly our recent studies of the acoustic emission due to these high-Q oscillators and its effect on the characteristics of their resonance.