Numerical analysis of the effects of nozzles number on the flow and power of cooling of a vortex tube

In this paper, the effects of the nozzles number on the flow and power of cooling of a vortex tube are studied, using a three-dimensional numerical fluid dynamic model. Vortex tube has interesting functions and several industrial applications, and, as a refrigerator, it is used as a spot cooling device in industry. High-pressure compressible fluid enters the vortex tube and leaves its cold and hot outlets at lower and higher temperatures than that of the inlet flow, respectively. A few experimental and a fewer numerical studies have been conducted in recent years on the effects of nozzles number of a vortex tube. However, in this paper, the effects of nozzles number on the flow and power of cooling of a counter-flow vortex tube are investigated comprehensively. It is observed that as the number of nozzles is increased, power of cooling increases significantly while cold outlet temperature decreases moderately.