IJETAE_0416_55

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2016)
304
Experimental and CFD Analysis of Vortex Tube
Sumit Choudhary1
, Vijay Bhalerao2
, Vishal Jaiswal3
, Amit Vairagade4
, Prof. A. B. Bhane5
1,2,3,4
UG Student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering , SND COE & RC, Yeola, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Maharashtra,
India
5
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, SND COE & RC, Yeola, Maharashtra, India
Abstract— The vortex tube is a simple device, having no
moving parts, which produces hot and cold air streams
simultaneously at its two ends from a single source of
compressed air. This paper describes the experimental study
on vortex tube made up of CPVC material which is cheaper
and lighter than conventionally used metals. This paper also
depicts the numerical simulation of the same by using CFD.
Literature review reveals investigations to understand the
heat transfer characteristics in a vortex tube with respect to
various parameters. There is no theory so perfect, which gives
the satisfactory explanation of the vortex tube phenomenon as
explained by various researchers.
Keywords— Air refrigeration, CFD, Cooling effect, CPVC,
RHVT, Spot cooling, Vortex tube.
I. INTRODUCTION
Vortex tube is a mechanical device operating as a
refrigerating machine without any moving part and no
chemical reaction. Vortex tube separates a flow of
compressed air into two streams simultaneously, one, a
current of air hotter than the inlet temperature & one
cooler, such a separation of the flow into region of low and
high total temperature is referred to as the temperature (or
energy) separation effect.
Generally Vortex tube can be classified into two types.
1) Counter flow vortex tube. (Referred as standard) 2)
Parallel or uni- flow vortex tube. The counter flow vortex
tube consist an entrance block of nozzle connection with a
cold orifice, a vortex tube (or hot tube) and a cone shape
valve. Counter flow Vortex tube means the direction of the
flow of free vortex and force vortex, that is outer flow and
inner flow are same. Compressed air is introduced into a
tube open at both ends through tangential flow inlets
positioned about a quarter of the tube's length away from
one end. A strongly swirling flow, vortex flow, results and
the gas proceeds along the tube. The outer regions of the
flow are found to be warmer than the inlet gas, while gas
towards the center of the experiences cooling.
The uni-flow vortex tube comprises an entrance block of
inlet nozzle, a vortex tube and a cone shape valve with a
central orifice. The operation of the uni-flow vortex tube is
similar to the operation of counter flow one. Uni-flow or
co-flow vortex tube means the directions of both the
vortices are same.
The uni-flow vortex tube is generally a less efficient
energy separator than the counter flow variety. Scientists
and pioneers found that counter flow type is efficient than
Uni-flow one.
But till date energy transfer mechanism in vortex tube is
not explained properly. Some pioneers have tried in their
own way to explain the magic but the explanations are not
supported by experimental results. The reason for the
difficulty in this work is the turbulence in the tube.
There are certain parameters, which contribute to the
performance of the vortex tube. The pioneers in this field
who conducted numerous experiments investigate these
parameters. A vortex tube is designed and fabricated and
several parameters are studied for the performance of the
vortex tube. The parameters are selected considering the
scope of the infrastructure and results are taken.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
1. DESIGN OF VORTEX TUBE FOR SPOT COOLING
APPLICATIONS AS ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
SOURCES by Mr. Ambatkar S. D. & Prof. Purandare P.
S. This paper discusses about the mass flow rate on the
cold side of the vortex tube is controlled by orifice. This
paper describes the effect of variation of orifice diameter
on the performance of vortex tube is analyzed. The
parameters such as length, nozzle diameter are kept
constant. The performance is observed at various inlet
pressures. The cold side temperature, temperature
difference, refrigeration effect and coefficient of
performance of the tube are plotted against the ratio of
orifice diameter to tube diameter and against pressure.
The trend lines are sketch to observe the variation of
each parameter. The results are discussed with the help
of theoretical concepts.
2. MODELING, OPTIMIZATION &
MANUFACTURING OF VORTEX TUBE AND
APPLICATION A. M. Dalavi, Mahesh Jadhav, Yasin
Shaikh, Avinash Patil, IOSR Journal of Mechanical and
Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE) ISSN€ : 2278-1684,
ISSN(p) : 2320–334X,this article discusses about the
vortex tube is a simple device, having no moving parts,
which produces hot and cold air streams simultaneously
at its two ends from a source of compressed air.

305
As such there is no theory so perfect, which gives the
satisfactory explanation of the vortex tube phenomenon
as explained by various researchers. Therefore, it was
thought to perform experimentation.
3. OPTIMIZATION OF LOW PRESSURE VORTEX
TUBE VIA DIFFERENT AXIAL ANGLES OF
INJECTION NOZZLES by Pourmahmoud N.,
Jahangiramini A., Izadi A., IJE TRANSACTIONS A:
Basics Vol. 26, No. 10, (October 2013) 1255-1266. In
this paper, a Ranque–Hilsch Vortex Tube has been
optimized utilizing axial angles for nozzles. Effect of
nozzles angles on the flow behavior has been
investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
techniques. A finite volume approach with the standard
k–ε turbulence model has been used to carry out all the
computations. The dimensions of the studied vortex
tubes have been kept the same for all models and the
performance of machine was studied under 5 different
angles (β), namely 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 degree adjusted to the
nozzles. Achieving a minimum cold exit temperature is
the main goal of this numerical research. The results
show that utilizing this kind of nozzle improves the
cooling capacity of device for most values of inlet mass
flow rates. Finally, some results of the CFD models have
been validated by the available experimental data which
show reasonable agreement, and other ones are
compared qualitatively.
4. A REVIEW OF COMPUTATIONAL STUDIES OF
TEMPERATURE SEPARATION MECHANISM IN
VORTEX TUBE, by Thakare H. R., Patil Y.R. and
Parekh A.D.., Bonfring International Journal of
Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 3,
No. 2, June 2013. This paper discusses about The
Ranque Hilsch Vortex Tube (RHVT) is a very simple
device well known for its phenomenal temperature
separation effect. With a single input of compressed gas,
the tube simultaneously produces two different streams
of gas – one being hotter and other being colder than
input gas. Over the years, different theories have
attempted to explain this effect without achieving any
universal agreement. Small size of RHVT presents
considerable difficulties towards predicting temperature,
pressure and flow field inside it. This is where
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis comes to
the aid of researchers. Many of researchers have
attempted such analysis using turbulence models such as
The Standard k-ε model, RNG k-ε model & Realizable
k-ε model, Large Eddy Simulation Technique (LES) etc.
This paper attempts to present a review of such recent
qualitative studies carried out on RHVT using CFD.
Care has been taken to explore diversified parameters
related to flow physics inside RHVT, instead of being
monotonous one. This review is expected to help future
researches in the related domain.
5. COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS ANALYSIS
AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF
OPTIMUM GEOMETRY FOR THE COLD END
ORIFICE AND SNAIL ENTRY OF VORTEX TUBE
by Deshmukh B.S., Prof. Chhapkhane N.K., IOSR
Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-
JMCE) Volume 11, Issue 4 Ver. III (Jul- Aug. 2014), in
this paper presents an overview of recent research on
Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube (RHVT) with divergent
tube and snail entry, increase in nozzle number and
supply pressure leads to the rise of swirl / vortex
intensity & thus maximum energy separation in the tube.
The paper develops three dimensional flow domain
using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and this
CFD and experimental studies are conducted towards the
optimization of RHVT. The optimum cold end diameter
(dc), number of snail entry and optimum parameters for
obtaining the maximum hot gas temperature and
minimum cold gas temperature are obtained through
CFD analysis and validated through experiments
III. TEMPERATURE SEPARATION EFFECT
The Vortex Tube Creates two types of vortices: free and
forced. In a free vortex (like a whirlpool) the angular
velocity of a fluid particle increases as it moves toward the
Center of the vortex-that is, the closer a particle of fluid is
to the center of a vortex, the faster it rotates. In a forced
vortex, the velocity is directly, proportional to the radius of
the vortex-the closer the center, the slower the velocity. In
a vortex tube, the outer (hot) air stream is a free vortex. The
inner (cold) air stream is a forced vortex. The rotational
movement of the forced vortex is controlled by the free
vortex (hot air stream). The turbulence of both the hot and
cold air streams causes the layers to be locked together in a
single, rotational mass. The inner air stream flows through
the hollow core of the outer air stream at a slower velocity
than the outer air stream. Since the energy is proportional
to the square of the velocity, the cold air stream loses its
energy by heat transfer. This allows energy to flow from
the inner air stream to the outer air stream as heat creating a
cold inner air stream.

306
IV. THE VORTEX TUBE PARAMETERS
In general, there are two-design feature associate with
vortex tube as vortex tube design is not yet standardized
because of some unrevealed phenomenon such as energy
transfer, nature of flow and other turbulent phenomenon.
1. Maximum temperature drop vortex tube design for
producing small quantity of air with very low temp.
2. Maximum cooling effect vortex tube design for
producing large quantity of air with moderate
temperature.
V. THE EXPERIMENTAL MODEL
Counter flow vortex Tube is used to study the Vortex
Tube phenomenon. Two holes were first made at tangent to
the CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) tube. These two
holes acted as a vortex generator and created a vortex flow
when pressurized air is passed through them. Then circular
plastic disc of diameter being same as that of the inner tube
was drilled with a 5mm hole to make orifice. Then two
CPVC tubes were assembled together and attached to each
end of the small tube having nozzles to form cold end and
hot end tube. The conical valve was then made on a lathe
with a taper of 30º and was fixed at the hot end. The main
bush contains the orifice and nozzle bush. The conical
valve is placed at open end of the main tube the
thermocouple TH and TC are placed near the conical valve
and orifice plate to measure the hot and cold temperature of
air leaving the vortex tube. Air from compressor is fed to
main tube through nozzle. The air gets tangential entry in
the tube. As it expands it gets swirl. Air travel towards the
valve side end. The valve is having conical shape hence it
can be adjusted to control the mass flow rate of the air.
Because of the partial opening of the valve some of the air
escapes out and remaining is reflected back towards the
nozzle through the core of the tube. The orifice at another
end controls the back flow of air. Cold side pipe do not
have any effect on the performance of vortex tube but just
guide the cold mass flow.
Fig.1: Schematic diagram of Vortex Tube
The geometrical data of the vortex tube for fabrication
and CFD model is as mentioned below –
Nozzle Diameter 3 mm
Number of nozzles 2(tangential to inner
diameter)
Length of the tube 1000mm
Inner diameter of tube 25.4 mm
Orifice diameter 4 mm
The orifice diameter is chosen such that the ratio of
orifice diameter to tube diameter is within the range of 0.17
to 0.60 & the length of the tube is kept approx. 40 times the
diameter of the tube. The literature review shows that tube
works best in this range.
Fig 2: The Actual Setup Model of Vortex Tube
VI. THE RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To analyze the performance experimentally, the inlet
pressure is varied and readings of cold end temperature
were taken for hot end valve opening of 25 % & 50%
respectively which is presented graphically as shown
below-
Graph 1: Value of Press. & Temp. for 75% Closed Valve

307
Graph 2: Value of Press. & Temp. for 50% Closed Valve
Fig. 3: Image of Sample Reading
Minimum temperature attained was -1.9˚C for 25%
valve opening at 4 bar pressure & 25.4˚C ambient
temperature.
VII. THE CFD ANALYSIS
Model of fluid cavity domain for CFD analysis was
prepared in Pro-E.
Fig. 4: Fluid Cavity Domain
Meshing and further analysis was done in ANSYS
Fluent.
Fig.5: Meshed Model
Fig.6: Temperature Plot
In CFD the minimum temperature attained was -4.7˚C
at 4 bar pressure & 25.4˚C ambient temperature.
VIII. ADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS
Advantages:
1) No moving parts, reliable, Maintenance free.
2) Instant cold air in environmental chamber.
3) Adjustable temperature
4) Interchangeable generators
5) No electricity or chemicals
6) Compact, light in weight.
7) Low cost application.
8) No coolant required.
9) No spark or explosion hazard.
10) Improve tool life and improve finish.
11) Maintenance free unit.

308
Applications
The vortex tube could be applied easily where there is
ready availability of compressed air. Due to no moving
parts and maintenance free utilization it could be used
where safety matters much. It could be replacement for
refrigerants as it is absolutely eco-friendly. Some of the
applications are as follows:
Spot cooling: The vortex tube is presently much used in
spot cooling in factories where the atmospheric temperature
is high which could harm the tool and instruments, ex: near
furnaces.
Cutting tools: Vortex tube is used in machining operation
such as milling, turning, drilling, etc. While machining
friction is created. Due to poor conductance of heat than
fluids cutting tool get heated which have shorter life, hi
such systems these are in greater demand. This also helps
in improving the surface finishing and allows higher
cutting speed. It also reduces the lubrication problems.
Heater-cum-cooler use: It is best in use where cooling and
heating are simultaneously required .Such application are
in coffee houses and in castings where hot air could be used
for pre heating and cool for chilling of moulds.
Cooling of turbine blades: The cooling of blades by air
through radial holes in turbines are successfully used in air
crafts and marine application.
Air suits: It is not always advisable to use air condition
everywhere. The places where hazards are usual to happen
it is advised to use vortex tube. Such places could be in
coal mines and foundry workshops.
REFERENCES
[1] Ambatkar S. D. & Purandare P. S., “Design Of Vortex Tube For
Spot Cooling Applications As Alternative Energy Sources”
[2] Domkundwar, “Refrigeration & Air Conditioning”, 5th
edition, Tata
McGraw-Hill.
[3] Dalavi A. M., Mahesh Jadhav, Yasin Shaikh, Avinash Patil,
“Modeling, Optimization & Manufacturing Of Vortex Tube And
Application”, IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(IOSR-JMCE) ISSN€ : 2278-1684, ISSN(p) : 2320–334X
[4] Pourmahmoud N., Jahangiramini A., Izadi A., “Optimization of Low
Pressure Vortex Tube via Different Axial Angles of Injection
Nozzles” IJE Transactions A: Basics Vol. 26, No. 10, (October
2013).
[5] Thakare H. R., Patil Y.R. and Parekh A.D., “A Review of
Computational Studies of Temperature Separation Mechanism in
Vortex Tube”, Bonfring International Journal of Industrial
Engineering and Management Science, Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2013.
[6] Deshmukh B.S., Prof. Chhapkhane N.K., “Computational Fluid
Dynamics Analysis And Experimental Investigations Of Optimum
Geometry For The Cold End Orifice And Snail Entry Of Vortex
Tube”,IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-
JMCE) Volume 11, Issue 4 Ver. III (Jul- Aug. 2014)

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