Exergy analysis and performance of a counter flow Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube having various nozzle numbers at different inlet pressures of oxygen and air

An experimental investigation is made to determine the effects of the orifice nozzle number and the inlet pressure on the heating and cooling performance of the counter flow Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube when air and oxygen used as a fluid. The orifices used at these experiments are made of the polyamide plastic material. The thermal conductivity of polyamide plastic material is 0.25 W/m °C. Five orifices with nozzle numbers of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been manufactured and used during the experiments. For each one of the orifices (nozzle numbers) when used with two different fluids, inlet pressures were adjusted from 150 kPa to 700 kPa with 50 kPa increments, and the exergy efficiency was determined. During the experiments, a vortex tube is used with an L/D ratio of 15, and cold mass fraction is held constant at 0.5. As a result of the experimental study, it is determined that the temperature gradient between the hot and cold fluid is decreased with increasing of the orifice nozzle number.