Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of using a convergent hot tube on the vortex tube refrigeration capacity. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model used is a three-dimensional steady compressible model that utilizes the k-?turbulence model. In this numerical research, different convergence angles of the hot tube (β=0?, 0.5?, 0.88?, 1?, 1.5?, and 2?) have been considered to analyze the vortex tube performance. The results showed that as the angle converges from the cylindrical model (β=0?), the cold temperature separation improves at the cold mass fractions greater than about 0.3, but increasing the angle more than 2?impairs the cold temperature separations compared to the cylindrical model, because of the secondary circulation development inside the vortex tube. Also, a successful validation has been carried out between some available experimental results and the present numerical model (for cylindrical vortex tube) Table 1.
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