Experimental and thermo-dynamical analysis of fully turbulent gas flows in vortex tube- fluid, temperature and power separations, isentropic efficiency, coefficient of performance (COP)

Abstract

In the industries related to the separation of suspended particles, gases, liquids and especially thermal usages, precise and effective separation systems such as vortex tubes are used. The vortex tube is a system without moving parts or applying chemical agents that can divide the inlet fluid (as the system operator) into two parts. The whole process of the separation occurs due to the kinematic properties of the fluid inside the system. For this reason, all the components that are effective in determining the direction of the fluid inside the system can affect the efficiency of the VT. This experimental study wants to present a comprehensive report on the effect of the ratio of the rounded radius to the main tube radius (R⁎/R: as a dimensionless parameter) on the temperature separation (ΔTc, ΔTh and ΔT), the power separation (cooling Qc, heating Qh and total Qtotal), the isentropic efficiency (η), the coefficient of performance (COPCM and COPHP) and the internal velocity patterns (axial and swirl). Based on the results, the changes in the radius have extensive effects on all of the mentioned efficiency factors. The results show that there is an optimum value that has the best performance in all the criteria.