Numerical Investigation of Flow Characteristics in Counter Flow Vortex Tube

Despite of simplicity in construction and operation, determination of nature of flow physics parameters inside vortex tube is highly difficult due to presence of highly swirling and turbulent flow inside very small dimensional domain of vortex tube. At this point of difficulty, the methodology of Computational Fluid Dynamics can significantly help the researchers. Present paper is intended to discuss the outcomes of CFD study carried out on counter flow vortex tube. Standard k-ɛ turbulence model has been used to replicate the turbulence inside vortex tube. This model is found to be very well capable of predicting flow features inside vortex tube. Results indicate that cold mass fraction is an important parameter affecting the temperature separation magnitude in vortex tube. Cooling power separation is also an important parameter to evaluate performance of counter flow vortex tube, instead of cold end temperature only. A recirculating secondary flow has also been identified near the inlet region of vortex tube, which is accompanied by backflow at cold end for smaller values of cold mass fraction. Results of present CFD study are in good agreement with experimental results.