Vortex Tube

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Investigation on Performance of Vortex Tube with Four and Six Inlet Nozzle Snehal Bharat Bhote†, Kiran Devade‡ †‡Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indira College of Engineering and Management, Pune, India

Abstract The vortex tube is a device used for generation of cold and hot air streams from compressed air. This simple device is very efficient in separation of air streams into two different temperatures streams. Cold air coming out of vortex tube can be used for air conditioning and refrigeration purpose. Cold mass fraction of vortex tube is considerably influenced by its thermo physical and geometrical parameters. Present study deals with the experimental investigation on the effect of these geometrical and thermo physical …show more content…

Introduction
In 1930s Georges J. Ranque discovered the phenomenon of temperature separation in a swirling vortex flow. He proposed the reasons for the temperature separation in the tube are compression and expansion of air in the tube [1] [2]. Later, the geometrical parameters and performance optimization of the tube were investigated by Hilsch [3]. He added the effect of inner friction to the Ranque’s model of compression and expansion.

Several different studies have been conducted to describe the energy separation phenomenon and maximum cooling effect. The effect of working tube radius on vortex tube performance and the optimum working tube radius has been determined by Rafiee [4]. Seyed and Sadeghiazad [4], carried out an experimental study about characteristic analysis of the performance of a counter flow RHVT with regard to control valve angle. Kırmacı [5], examined the influence of orifice nozzle number and inlet pressure on heating and cooling performance of vortex tube using air and oxygen as test fluids. His results indicated that the temperature difference between the hot and cold fluid decreases with increasing nozzle …show more content…

[6] experimented with conical valves with angles 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°, 150°and 180° and concluded that the biggest temperature difference value of 51°C is observed with the plug which has a tip angle of 30° or 60°. Vaidyanathan and Prabhakaran [7] concluded from his experiments that when the diameter of the orifice is 6 mm (0.5 D) out of orifice diameter 5 mm, 6 mm and 7 mm, it produces maximum cold air temperature reduction of 26.5°C. Chang et al. [8] carried out experiments to investigate the influence of divergence angle on the performance of vortex tube and states that the performance of vortex tube can be improved by using a divergent hot tube. So divergent angle 0° and 4° were chosen and L/D is selected in close range 15 to 18 with 2 and 6 inlet nozzle. Orifice diameter ranges from 5 to 7 mm and conical valve angle of 30°, 45°, 60°, 75° and 90°. Pressure range for experiment was 2 to 6

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