Computational Fluid Dynamics and Experimental Analysis for Optimum Geometry of Vortex Tube

Abstract

A vortex tube is a simple energy separating device which splits a compressed air stream into a cold and hot stream without any external energy supply or chemical reactions. This paper presents an overview of recent research on Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube (RHVT) with divergent tube and snail entry, increase in nozzle number and supply pressure leads to the rise of swirl / vortex intensity & thus maximum energy separation in the tube. The paper develops three dimensional flow domain using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and this CFD and experimental studies are conducted towards the optimization of RHVT. The optimum cold end diameter (d c ), number of snail entry and optimum parameters for obtaining the maximum hot gas temperature and minimum cold gas temperature are obtained through CFD analysis and validated through experiments.