An experimental investigation of the optimum geometry for the cold end orice
of a vortex tube
Sachin U. Nimbalkar *, Michael R. Muller
Center for Advanced Energy Systems, Mechanical Engineering, Rutgers University, 98 Brett Road, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 14 June 2007
Accepted 9 March 2008
Available online 25 March 2008
Keywords:
RanqueHilsch vortex tube
Energy separation
Secondary ow
a b s t r a c t
A vortex tube is a simple mechanical device, which splits a compressed gas stream into a cold and
hot stream without any chemical reactions or external energy supply. This paper presents the results
of a series of experiments focusing on various geometries of the cold end side for different inlet
pressures and cold fractions. Specically, the tests were conducted using different cold end orice
diameters.
Energy separation and energy ux separation efciencies are dened and used to recover characteristic properties of the vortex tube. These are used to show an appropriate scale to non-dimensionalize
the energy separation effect. The experimental results indicate that there is an optimum diameter of
cold end orice for achieving maximum energy separation. The results also show that the maximum
value of energy separation was always reachable at a 60% cold fraction irrespective of the orice
diameter and the inlet pressure. The results are compared with the previous studies on internal ow
structure, and optimal operating parameters are shown to be consistent with a matching of orice
size with the secondary circulation being observed.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Energy separation is the re-distribution of the total energy in
a uid ow without external work or heat, so that some portion of
the uid has a higher total energy, and the other portion has a lower total energy than the inlet uid. The RanqueHilsch tube [1] is
an ideal example to this phenomenon, which separates the ow
of gas into two streams simultaneously, using the generation of a
strong vortex whose axis is aligned with the directions of ow. This
has resulted in a large number of engineering applications utilizing
this ow behavior, such as the separation of gases of different
molecular weight, refrigeration schemes, cyclone separation, gas
turbine cyclones, combustion chambers, and spray dryers.
The literature concerning the design, operation and performance of vortex tubes is extensive, with descriptions rst appearing in 1948 ([2]) with excellent review papers by Takahama [3],
Ahlborn and Groves [7], and Gao et al. [18]. The studies focusing
on the role of internal geometry include Takahama and Soga
[19], Hartnett and Eckert [20], Marshall [5], Saidi and Valipour
[6], and Eiamsa-ard and Promvonge [16].
During 1960s, Takahama carried out experimental studies on
pressure and temperatures inside the vortex tube and studied
510
2. Experimental apparatus
Table 1
Geometric parameters and test sequence
Generator
number
Generator
Generator
Generator
Generator
1
2
3
4
Inner
diameter
D (cm)
Generator nozzle
Width
(cm)
Length
(cm)
Nozzles
1.905
1.905
1.905
1.905
0.3175
0.3175
0.3175
0.3175
0.4064
0.4064
0.4064
0.4064
4
4
4
4
dc1
dc2
dc3
dc4
0:3454
0:6985
0:9576
1:2636
dr dDc
0.18
0.37
0.50
0.66
The vortex tube used while performing all the experiments had
an internal diameter D = 1.905 cm and a length L = 25.4 cm (L/D ratio equal to 13.33). The tube was made of stainless steel and thermally insulated from the atmosphere to avoid errors due to heat
conduction and to maintain repeatable steady-state.
3. Appropriate non-dimensionalization of energy separation
effect
To recover the characteristic properties of the vortex tube and
its energy separation effect, it is necessary to non-dimensionalize
various geometric and thermo-physical parameters involved.
These parameters are inlet pressure (Pi), orice diameter (dc), inlet
mass ow rate (mi), cold end mass ow rate (mc) and pressure drop
across the hot fraction control valve.
In the past, most of the researchers did not use the dimensionless parameters in their research work, and the remaining of them
used improper scaling parameters for non-dimensionalization. For
example, the use of inlet temperature to non-dimensionalize temperature splitting effect (Fig. 3A). Temperature splitting effect is
dened as the difference between hot and cold end side temperatures (Eq. (1)). Basically, it is the maximum possible temperature
gradient achieved by the vortex tube. If the compressed air is generated at some remote location, then the inlet temperature would
not change with the inlet pressure.
Hence, it would be inappropriate to use the inlet temperature to
scale the temperature gradients. But if compression is done onsite,
511
where k is specic heat ratio for air = 1.4, R is gas constant = 287 J/
kg K.
Hence, non-dimensionalized version of the energy splitting effect is
2.5
(Th-Tc)/Ti
90% cf
77% cf
60% cf
50% cf
37% cf
15% cf
1.5
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
inlet temperature would change with inlet pressure (due to compressor work), and it would be appropriate to use the inlet temperature to scale the temperature splitting effect. Temperature
splitting effect is dened as
Temperature splitting effect T h T c
1.00
Energy separation/ CW
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
1.00
0.5
0
1.00
cp T h T c
CW
1.50
2.00
2.50
90% cf
77% cf
60% cf
50% cf
37% cf
15% cf
3.00
cp T i T c
CW
3.50
cp T i T c
CW
512
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
0
-0.20
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
-0.40
-0.60
-0.80
dc2 = dcold
dc3 > dcold
The transfer of colder uid elements near the cold end exit zone
through the swirling secondary loop to the warmer ow region causing
a decrease in the hot end temperature
Cold stream through cold end and hot stream through hot end. No
recirculation
The transfer of warmer ow elements back to the cold end exit zone
causing an increase in cold end exit temperature of the ow
Fig. 7. The effect of orice diameter on the energy ux separation efciency (mi =
0.45, 0.68 and 0.82 kg/min). Error bars in the graph indicate 5% of experimental
error.
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reversal of the axial velocity in the core of the vortex. Pressure drop
across the hot fraction control valve decides the cold fraction and
the location of axial stagnation point.
As stated by Brendon et al. [14] and Beran and Culick [15]
depending upon the initial swirl intensity, the swirl decay rate
and various pressure drops inside the tube for similar geometric
and thermo-physical conditions, different types of ow structures
can be observed inside the vortex tubes. But for a constant inlet
pressure and xed orice diameter, ow structure inside the vortex tube would completely depend upon the pressure drop across
the hot fraction control valve. And as the pressure drop across the
hot fraction control valve denes the amount of cold fraction (cf),
cold fraction becomes a better parameter to relate the ow structure with the performance factor of the vortex tube. We hypothesize that when there is an increase in hot fraction (or decrease in
cold fraction), axial stagnation point moves towards the hot end,
and due to the stretching of the central recirculating core, radial
stagnation point moves towards the axis of the tube. On the contrary, when the hot fraction decreases, axial stagnation point
moves towards the cold end, and radial stagnation point travels
to the wall of the tube. But for the ideal separation of cold and
hot air streams, there are xed critical locations for the axial and
the radial stagnation points. We believe that at 60% cold fraction,
the vortex tube achieves aforementioned ideal operating conditions, and hence the performance factor reaches to its maximum
value irrespective of orice diameter and inlet pressure.
5. Conclusions
Secondary circulation ow appears to be characteristics of the
cold end orice diameter as conrmed by our studies and could
be a performance degrading mechanism. The degradation could
be due to the transfer of colder uid elements near the cold end
exit zone through the swirling secondary loop to the warmer ow
region causing a decrease in the hot end temperature and the
transfer of warmer ow elements back to the cold end exit zone
causing an increase in cold end exit temperature of the ow.
Isentropic compression work seems an appropriate scale to
non-dimensionalize the energy separation effect. Energy separation and energy ux separation efciencies are suitable for measuring the parameters to recover the characteristic properties of
the vortex tube.
The experimental results indicate that there is an optimum
diameter of cold-end orice for achieving maximum energy separation. It was observed that for cold fraction 660%, the effect of
cold end orice diameter is negligible and above 60% cold fraction
it becomes prominent. The results also show that the maximum
value of performance factor was always reachable at a 60% cold
fraction irrespective of the orice diameter and the inlet pressure.
Our claim is that the cold fraction is the crucial parameter to relate
the ow structure inside the vortex tube to its performance factor.
Fig. 8. Characterizing pressure drops in vortex tubes. (a) Pressure drop at the inlet, (b) pressure drop through the generator, (c) pressure drop due to ow, (d) pressure drop
through the cold end orice, and (e) pressure drop across the hot fraction control valve.
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