1. NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FLOW BEHAVIOUR
AND ENERGY SEPARATION IN VORTEX TUBE
Guided by
Karthika. A.S
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical Engg.
CET, TVM
Presented by
John wills N
Fourth semester
Thermal Science
Roll No 702M103

2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Vortex tube
• Literature survey
• Objectives
• Methodology
• Modeling of vortex tube
• Results and discussion
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• 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.
• When high-pressure gas is tangentially injected into the vortex chamber
via the inlet nozzles, a swirling flow is created inside the vortex chamber.
Part of the gas in the vortex tube reverses for axial component of the
velocity and move from the hot end to the cold end. At the hot exhaust,
the gas escapes with a higher temperature, while at the cold exhaust, the
gas has a lower temperature compared to the inlet temperature.
• There are two types of vortex tube: Uni-flow vortex tube and Counter
flow vortex tube.

4. VORTEX TUBE
Uni-flow vortex tube
Counter flow vortex tube

5. Working of Vortex tube

6. Applications
• Cooling electronic controls
• Cooling machining operation
• Cooling soldered parts
• Electronic component cooling
• Cooling heat seals
Advantages
• No moving parts
• No electricity or chemicals
• Small, lightweight
• Low cost
• Maintenance free
• Instant cold air
• Adjustable temperature

7. Literature Survey
1. U. Behera, CFD analysis and experimental investigations towards
optimizing the parameters of Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, International
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 48 (2005), pp. 1961–1973.
• Different types of nozzle profiles and number of nozzles are evaluated by
CFD analysis.
• The swirl velocity, axial velocity and radial velocity components as well
as the flow patterns including secondary circulation flow have been
evaluated.
2. N.Pourmahmoud, Numerical Investigation of the Thermal Separation in
a Vortex Tube, proceedings of world academy of science, engineering
and technology volume 33 september 2008 ISSN 2070-3740.
• Simulations were conducted for different cold mass fractions by
changing the hot end pressure.
• The effects of cold mass fraction on the temperature separation effect
were studied.

8. 3. Maziar Arjomandi et al, The effect of vortex angle on the efficiency of
the Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, Experimental Thermal and Fluid
Science 33 (2008) 54–57.
• A small vortex angle demonstrated a larger temperature difference and
better performance for the heating of the vortex tube.
• Small vortex angles resulted in better cooling only at lower values of
input pressure.
4. Sachin U. Nimbalkar et al, An experimental investigation of the
optimum geometry for the cold end orifice of a vortex tube, Applied
Thermal Engineering 29 (2009) 509–514.
• The diameter of cold orifice influence the energy separation in a Vortex
tube.

9. OBJECTIVES
• Analyze the flow parameters and energy separation mechanism
inside the vortex tube.
• To determine the effect of different parameters such as aspect
ratio, number of inlets, inlet air pressure and hot exit pressure.
• Optimization of critical design parameters of the vortex tubes.
• Investigate the effect of cold mass fraction on temperature
separation.

10. Methodology
• Modeling
Gambit 2.4
• Numerical analysis
Fluent 6.3
3D, segregated, implicit scheme.
k -ε Turbulence model.

11. Vortex tube diameter, D = 12 mm.
Length, L = 120 mm.
Cold end diameter, dc = 7mm.
Modeling of vortex tube

12. Gambit model

13. Meshed model

14. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

15. Temperature Plot
L/D = 10, inlet pr. = 5bar, Hot out pr. = 1 bar

16. Cold stream Hot stream
Axial distance, m Axial distance, m
Temperature,K
Temperature,K
Temperature distribution along axial direction

17. Pressure, Pa

18. Cold stream Hot stream
Pressure,Pa
Pressure,Pa
Pressure distribution along axial direction
Axial distance, mAxial distance, m

19. Axial velocity , m/s

20. Cold stream
Hot stream
Axialvelocity,m/s
Axialvelocity,m/s
Axial distance, m Axial distance, m
20
Axial velocity along axial direction

21. Variation of axial velocity in radial direction

22. Variation of tangential velocity along radial direction

23. Static Temperature,
K

24. Variation of static temperature along radial direction

25. Variation of temperature with number of inlets
0 0 . 0 4 0 . 0 8 0 . 1 2
2 8 0
2 8 5
2 9 0
2 9 5
3 0 0
3 0 5
G r a p h 1
t w o in le t s
f o u r in le t s
s ix in le t s
Temperature,K
A x ia l d is ta n c e , m

26. Variation of Swirl velocity
Swirl velocity, m/s

27. Variation of temperature for different inlet pressure

28. Conclusions
• A numerical computations have been carried out to
predict vortex tube flow.
• Variation of pressure, velocity and temperature inside
vortex tube were studied.
• The obtained profiles indicate a hot peripheral flow
and a reversing cold inner core flow.
• The results showed that temperature separation inside
the vortex tube exists.
• At any axial location, the static temperature of the
fluid particles moving towards cold exit is more than
the hot exit. This sets up the direction of heat transfer
between the core and the peripheral flow in vortex
tube.

29. Contd……
• A minimum of 4 bar pressure is required to
generate vortex with sufficient strength for
attaining temperature separation.
• Very high inlet pressure have no significance
in temperature separation.
• From the parametric study, the best results
were obtained for the case of four tangential
inlets.

30. References
• U. Behera et al, CFD analysis and experimental investigations towards
optimizing the parameters of Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, International
Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 48 (2005), pp. 1961–1973.
• N.Pourmahmoud et al, Numerical Investigation of the Thermal Separation in
a Vortex Tube, proceedings of world academy of science, engineering and
technology volume 33 september 2008 ISSN 2070-3740.
• Maziar Arjomandi et al, The effect of vortex angle on the efficiency of the
Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 33
(2008) 54–57.
• Sachin U. Nimbalkar et al, An experimental investigation of the optimum
geometry for the cold end orifice of a vortex tube, Applied Thermal
Engineering 29 (2009) 509–514.

31. • P K Singh et al, An Experimental Performance Evaluation of Vortex Tube,
IE (I) Journal.MC, Vol 84, January 2004.
• Upendra Behera et al, Numerical investigations on flow behavior and
energy separation in Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer 51 (2008) 6077–6089.
• SMITH Eiamsa-ard et al, Numerical prediction of vortex flow and thermal
separation in a subsonic vortex tube, Journal of Zhejiang University
SCIENCE ISSN 1862-1775.
• Saeid Akhesmeh et al, Numerical Study of the Temperature Separation in
the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube, American Journal of Engineering and
Applied Sciences 1 (3): 181-187, 2008 ISSN 1941-7020.

32. THANK YOU

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