An experimental study of a counter-flow Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube is reported here. Literature has been divided over the mechanism of energy transfer responsible for the temperature separation in the vortex tube. A black box approach is used to design experiments to infer the relative roles of heat transfer and shear work transfer in the counter-flow vortex tube. To this end, the stagnation temperature and the mass flow rates are measured at the inlet and the two outlets. In addition, pressure measurements at the stagnation condition and at the inlet section to the vortex tube were made. Based on these experiments, it is reasoned that the predominant mode of energy transfer responsible for temperature separation in a counter-flow vortex is the shear work transfer between the core and the periphery. Copyright © 2014 by ASME.

Periyapatna A. Ramakrishna

Department of Aerospace Engineering

M Ramakrishna

Manimaran, R.

Energy transfer

Experiments

Shear flow

BLACK BOX APPROACH

DESIGN EXPERIMENTS

ENERGY SEPARATIONS

Experimental investigations

Mass flow rate

RANQUE-HILSCH VORTEX TUBE

TEMPERATURE SEPARATION

Vortex flow

IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Experimental Investigation of Temperature Separation in a Counter-Flow Vortex Tube

Journal of Heat Transfer

In the present study, three dimensional computational fluid dynamic simulations are carried out to understand the energy separation in the counter-flow vortex tube. The objective of the work is to understand the flow features that affect the energy separation between the core and peripheral flow layers inside the vortex tube. Trapezoidal shaped inlets of varying numbers from one to six are compared and analyzed, while the total inlet mass flow rate and other geometrical parameters are held constant with air as a working fluid. From the results, highest temperature separation is observed with single inlet as observed in the literature. Further, the vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy at the dividing line between core and periphery decrease with the increase in number of inlets. To understand the same, streamlines are visualized. Analysis reveals that higher core flow layer diameter, lower mean pitch distance and longer residence time are the main factors affecting energy separation. It is also found that secondary circulation vortices are prominent with the single inlet. The size of these vortices regardless of the number plays a key role in energy separation. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Energy

Computational analysis of flow features and energy separation in a counter-flow vortex tube based on number of inlets

This article describes the energy separation with the simulation of a three dimensional flow field in Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. Rectangular and trapezoidal shaped inlets with varying aspect ratio are compared and analyzed while other geometrical parameters are held constant. Air is used as a working fluid. The nature of flow field inside the vortex tube is observed for different cases at an inlet pressure condition of 6 bar (absolute). From the results, it is observed that inlet with higher aspect ratio gives higher temperature separation. The trapezoidal inlet configuration is found to give higher temperature separation as compared to a rectangular shape. The streamlines emanating at the hot and cold end exits for both the rectangular and trapezoidal are visualized. Residence time for two shapes is calculated and found to be higher for trapezoidal shape. The increase in turbulence kinetic energy for the cold end exiting streamlines at the dividing region between core and periphery could be an important factor towards energy separation. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd.

Computational analysis of energy separation in a counter-flow vortex tube based on inlet shape and aspect ratio

International Journal of Refrigeration

The working principle of a vortex tube

Physical Review Letters

Maxwell’s Demon in the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

A critical review of temperature separation in a vortex tube

Heat and Mass Transfer

A review on design criteria for vortex tubes

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Numerical investigations on flow behaviour and energy separation in Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube

Experimental investigation of temperature separation in a counter-flow vortex tube

Journal	Journal of Heat Transfer
Publisher	American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ISSN	00221481
Open Access	No