Abstract
A vortex tube is a simple device which works as a refrigerator, also known as Ranque Vortex Tube, Hilsch Vortex Tube, and Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube. It is used to obtain desired hot and cold gas and is widely used for spot cooling in industry. In vortex tube, the effect of geometrical parameters on the cold flow temperature of vortex tube is still unclear, and effect of certain working gas is unidentified. Hence, the objective of this analysis is to determine the effect of length of the vortex tube, cold exit diameter and different working gas. 3 different tube lengths, 3 different cold exit diameters, and 8 different types of gas are used. Simflow, which is free software, is selected to analyse the effect numerically. From the results, it is clear that the optimum tube length, cold exit diameter, and working gas are L = 175 mm, d = 4 mm and helium, respectively.
Highlights
The vortex tube is a simple device working as a refrigerating machine without any moving part, electrical and chemical reaction
Cold gas stream leaves the tube through a central orifice near the entrance nozzle, hot gas stream flows toward regulating valve and leaves the tube
Ranque was the first one who reported this phenomenon of energy separation in a vortex tube [2]
Summary
The vortex tube is a simple device working as a refrigerating machine without any moving part, electrical and chemical reaction. Sadeghiazad [8] performed a similar research with d/D = 0.5 They reported that the cold different temperature is higher than N. Muller [9] studied the effect of cold orifice diameter on the performance of vortex tube. When using nozzle with different material, it shown that oxygen has smaller temperature different compared to air Same goes to another experimental investigated which is using same working gas and conclude that air is much better used for working gas compared to oxygen [11]. 3 different tube lengths, 3 different cold exit diameters, and 8 different types of working gas were used to determine its effect on the performance of vortex tube. The analysis is performed using a free licence simulation software named Simflow
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