An Experimental Investigation of the Cold Mass Fraction, Nozzle Number, and Inlet Pressure Effects on Performance of Counter Flow Vortex Tube

Abstract

This paper discusses the experimental investigation of vortex tube performance as it relates to cold mass fraction, inlet pressure, and nozzle number. The orifices have been made of the polyamide plastic material. Five different orifices, each with two, three, four, five and six nozzles, respectively, were manufactured and used during the test. The experiments have been conducted with each one of those orifices shown above, and the performance of the vortex tube has been tested with air inlet pressures varying from 150 kPa to 700 kPa with 50 kPa increments and the cold mass fractions of 0.5–0.7 with 0.02 increments. The energy separation has been investigated by use of the experimentally obtained data. The results of the experimental study have shown that the inlet pressure was the most effective parameter on heating and the cooling performance of the vortex tube. This occurs due to the higher angular velocities and angular momentum conservation inside the vortex tube. The higher the inlet pressure produces, the higher the angular velocity difference between the center flow and the peripheral flow in the tube. Furthermore, the higher velocity also means a higher frictional heat formation between the wall and the flow at the wall surface of the tube. This results in lower cold outlet temperatures and higher hot outlet temperatures.