Effects of geometric parameters on the separated air flow temperature of a vortex tube for design optimization

Vortex tubes are used in many industrial fields as parts for refrigerating machines due to their many intrinsic benefits. Although the use of these types of tubes has become common, the characteristics of energy separation associated with these tubes have yet to be vigorously researched. In this study, a counter-flow type of vortex tube is employed to investigate the energy separation characteristics with various geometric configurations. As a preliminary step, the effect of the nozzle area ratio and the inlet pressure were studied given a selected tube length (L = 14 D). The temperature distribution inside the vortex tube was measured to understand the physics of the energy separation phenomena. The measurement showed that the temperature distribution on the hot air side recovers to the inlet temperature at a cold air mass fraction of 0.5 (yc) with two types of nozzle area ratios. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the vortex tube with various geometric structures and operating inlet pressures. The results show that variation of the cold exit orifice hole diameter significantly influences the energy separation between two exits.

► We investigate the energy separation characteristics of vortex tube.
► We conduct parametric study with various geometrics and inlet pressure.
► Inner temperature distribution, difference, tendency and deviation.
► Dominant parameter is inlet pressure to improve the separation efficiency.
► Cold exit orifice diameter influence to each exit temperature trend greatly.