A SEMINAR REPORT

ON
DESIGN CONSIDERATION OF
VORTEX TUBE

GUIDED BY
Prof .B .K. Bokankar
Lecturer
Power)
(Mechanical Department)

PREPARED BY
Mr. Nilesh Gohel
(1 rd Semester, Heat &

INTRODUCTION

The vortex tube (also called the RanqueHilsch vortex tube) is a

mechanical device operating as a refrigerating machine without
any moving parts, by separating a compressed gas stream into a
low total temperature region and a high one. Such a separation of
the flow into regions of low and high total temperature is referred
to as the temperature (or energy) separation effect. The vortex
tube was first discovered by Ranque, a metallurgist and physicist
who was granted a French patent for the device in 1932, and a
United States patent in 1934.
Classifications of the vortex tube
Generally, the vortex tube can be classified into two types. One is
the counter-flow type (often referred to as the standard type)
and the other the parallel or uni-flow type, as shown in Figs. 1a
and b, respectively.

Counter-flow vortex tube

The counter-flow vortex tube, as shown in Fig. 1a, consists of an entrance
block of nozzle connections with a central orifice, a vortex tube (or hot
tube) and a cone-shaped valve. A source of compressed gas (e.g. air) at
high pressure enters the vortex tube tangentially through one or more
inlet nozzles at a high velocity. The expanding air inside the tube then
creates a rapidly spinning vortex. The air flows through the tube rather
than pass through the central orifice located next to the nozzles because
the orifice is of much smaller diameter than the tube. The length of the
tube is typically between 30 and 50 tube diameters, and no optimum
value has been determined between these limits. As the air expands
down the tube, the pressure drops sharply to a value slightly above
atmospheric pressure, and the air velocity can approach the speed of
sound. Centrifugal action will keep this constrained vortex close to the
inner surface of the tube.

Fig1a. The RanqueHilsch standard vortex tube or counter-flow vortex tube

The air that escapes at the other end of the tube can be varied by a flow-control valve, usually shaped
as a cone. The amount of air released is between 30% and 70% of the total airflow in the tube. The
remainder of the air is returned through the centre of the tube, along its axis as a counter-flowing
stream. Once a vortex is set up in the tube, the air near the axis cools down while the air at periphery
heats up in comparison with the inlet temperature. This phenomenon is known as temperature
separation effect (also called theRanqueHilsch effect). As a result, the gas escaping through the
orifice is cold and the hot gas flows out in the other direction. A remarkable feature of this device is
the absence of moving parts and simplicity of operation.

Uni-flow vortex tube

The uni-flow vortex tube (Fig. 1b) comprises an entrance block of inlet nozzles, a vortex tube
and a cone-shaped valve with a central orifice. Unlike the more popular counter-flow
version, the cold air exit is located concentrically with the annular exit for the hot air. The
operation of the uni-flow vortex tube is similar to the operation of the counter-flow one.
The temperatures of the air leaving the hot and cold ends can differ by as much as 140160
C, but extremes of up to 230 C have been measured by Comassar [2]. In general, the
practical low-temperature limit for the cold air stream is -40 C, although temperatures as
low as -50 C have been obtained with research equipment. The practical limit for the high
temperature is 190 C, but temperatures in excess of 225 C have been observed by Bruno
[3,1]. The main applications of the vortex tube are in those areas where compactness,
reliability, and low equipment costs are the major factors and the operating efficiency is of
no consequence. Some typical applications are cooling devices for airplanes, space suits
and mines; instrument cooling; and industrial process coolers.

The uni-flow or parallel flow vortex tube

CONSTRUCTION OF VORTEX TUBE

The main part of a basic vortex tube is a hollow cylinder, in which

compressed air or other fluids are injected tangentially.
The exits set at one or both ends of the tube allow hot and cold air to
exhaust. The hot nozzle is located at the periphery, and cold nozzle is
placed at the centreline of the tube.

WORKING OF VORTEX TUBE

Working of Vortex Tube

 The vortex tube, as shown in Fig consists of an entrance block of nozzle

connections with a central orifice, a vortex tube (or hot tube) and a coneshaped valve.
A source of compressed gas (e.g. air) at high pressure enters the vortex tube
tangentially through one or more inlet nozzles at a high velocity.
The expanding air inside the tube then creates a rapidly spinning vortex.
The air flows through the tube rather than pass through the central orifice
located next to the nozzles because the orifice is of much smaller diameter than
the tube.
As the air expands down the tube, the pressure drops sharply to a value slightly
above atmospheric pressure, and the air velocity can approach the speed of
sound.
The air that escapes at the other end of the tube can be varied by a flow-control
valve, usually shaped as a cone. The remainder of the air is returned through
the centre of the tube, along its axis as a counter-flowing stream.

As a result, the gas escaping through the orifice is cold and the hot gas
flows out in the other direction.
The flow inside the vortex tube can be described as rotating air which
moves as a spring shaped vortex track. The peripheral flow moves towards
the hot and the axial flow moves in the opposite direction towards the cold
end. The angle between the circular helix and vertical axis is an important
parameter since it decides the length of the vortex track and peripheral
velocity of the flow which influence the efficiency of the vortex tube.
In the middle section of the tube is the inlet for the compressed air. Note
that the inlet is much closer to the cold outlet then the outlet. There is very
important aspect of the tube related to this feature. From the above figure .
one can see the middle part which says spiral chamber in this part. The
spiral chamber is the essential component of the tube because it is the
source of hot and cold separation of the gas. How it works based primary
on the Physics of rotational motion and on mazwells law states the basis of
kinetic theory of gases which in turn helps explain the fundamental
properties of gases such as diffusion and pressure.

Distribution profile is much different because of the shape of the spiral tube itself. As
compressed air enters into spiral chamber, it immediately desires to diffuse based on this
diffusion function.
The velocity of all molecules will have both a z component and a (thita) component, where
z is the direction along the tube axis and (thita) is the angular direction above the axis itself.
The majority of molecules will diffuse in such a way to create a gas vortex within the tube
which expands as the molecules diffuse down the tube. We know that molecules spiralling
down the tube far from the tubes Z- axis will have a higher velocity. In other words. The
molecules rotating about the tube axis are moving faster as they travel down the tube.

The first law of thermodynamics state that the increase of internal energy of a
thermodynamic
System is equal to the amount of heat energy added to the system minus the work
done on the system by its surrounding. Mathematically
Or written in differential form,
U=Q-W ...................................Eq 1
Or written in differential form,
dU=dQ-dW...........................Eq 2
in the equations ,U refers to the internal energy of the system, Q refersto the heat of
the system and W refers to the workdone on the system by it surrounding. Applying
Eq 1 to the vortex tube , the thermodynamics law reduced to Eq 3 belowdU=dQ........................................Eq 3
since no work is done on the system. This means that any change in internal energy
related to the change in heat of the system.

One can now understand why the cold outlet valve is much closer to the inlet
than the hot outlet valve. As the molecules travel down the tube, they begin
slowing down in the both Z and thita direction. This slowing is the reduction in
the axial convection of the vortex as it moves down the tube. In other worlds
the molecules diffusion rate slows down as the gas fills more space and relieves
pressure causing a slower propagation of the molecules down the line. As this
happens, less kinetic energy is used and converted back to internal enegy which
in turn increase the temperature of the gas, Since the original radial pressure
gradient caused a flow of kinetic energy towards the outer molecules, they have
more kinetic energy to convert back to internal energy and hence have higher
temperature .This is known as viscous dissipation of the kinetic energy.
The reason the cold outlet is closer to the inlet is due to the desire to reduce the
effect of viscous dissipation of kinetic energy. The outlet music must be close
to the inlet because the further away it gets, the more viscous dissipation will
occur and hence higher the gas temperature will be. The Reason the cold outlet
is not directly next to the inlet is to give the system pace to utilize the radial
pressure gradient and to transfer kinetic energy to the molecules at the tube
wall. The outlet then is logically poisoned to remove gas from the center of the
tube

The hot outlet is positioned further from the inlet than the cold outlet is for
similar reasons. Instead of getting the air out quickly to keep it cool, the
scientist lets it travel farther down the tube warming up by prolonged viscous
dissipation of kinetic energy. As the gas travels down the tube, axial convection
also decreases, reducing the gradient of temperature of pressure down the tube,
to make a more unified stream. By the time the stream reaches the outlet, nearly
all of it has the same temperature and has a higher temperature than the inlet
due to the increased kinetic energy it had initially. The outlet is drawn from
the tube walls to obtain the molecules with maximum high temperature.
"Viscous dissipation" usually refers to the work done by the velocity against
the viscous stresses - ie an irreversible process where mechanical energy
(useful) is turned into thermal engery (not so useful).
define viscous dissipation as the transformation of kinetic energy to internal
energy (heating up the fluid) due to viscosity. This includes both turbulent
kinetic energy and mean flow kinetic energy.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS

5.1.1 Cold mass fraction

The cold mass fraction is the most important parameter indicating
the vortex tube performance and the temperature/energy
separation inside the vortex tube. Cold mass fraction is defined as
the ratio of cold air mass flow rate to inlet air mass flow rate. The
cold mass fraction can be controlled by the cone valve, which is
placed at the hot tube end. This can be expressed as follows

where Mc is the mass flow rate of cold air and Mi is the mass flow
rate of the entry air.
5.1.2. Cold air temperature drop
Cold air temperature drop or temperature reduction is defined as
the difference in temperature between entry air temperature and
cold air temperature

Ti is the entry air temperature and Tc is the cold air temperature.

PARAMETER AFFECTING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE VORTEX TUBE

BASED ON RESEARCH by Zeegers and waele (2009)

Westley ,(1995) experimentally optimized the geometrical

parameter of the RHVT system. He found that optimum
configuration can be described asrelationship between the inlet
area , the tube length , the vortex tube cross sectional area, the
cold nd orifice area size , hot end plug dimension and the inlet
pressure
Zeegers and waele (2009) measured the flow parameters in the
tube. The air velocity inside the tube was measured and the
perfomance of the vortex tube with different parameter like cold
fractions, pressure of the injected air, and shape of vortex tube.

BASED ON RESEARCH by Arjomandi and Xue

EFFECT OF THE HOT END PLUGS ON THE EFFICIENCY

Results

The thermal efficiency of the tube has been used for comparing the different hot
end plug. to calculate the thermal efficiency eq is represented by Fulton represented
by

where is the vortex tube thermal efficiency, =(-1)/, is the

specific heat ratio=1.4,
is the cold mass fraction and is defined as the cold mass flow rate
divided by the input mass flow rate, T is the temperature
difference, Tin is the input temperature, pin and pc represent the
air pressure at the inlet and at cold air nozzle, respectively.

Ap/At is the ratio between plug area

and tube cross section area. As it is
seen the cold mass fraction
increases from 0.17 to 1 when
Ap/At changes from 0.75 to 1
which is the result of varying the
plug diameter from 26mm to
30mm.

Nozzle parameters affecting vortex tube energy separation performance

OBSERVATION

The increase of the number of inlet nozzles leads to higher temperature separation in the
vortex tube.
Using a small cold orifice (d/D 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4) yields higher backpressure while a large
cold orifice (d/D 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9) allows high tangential velocities into the cold tube,
resulting in lower thermal/energy separation in the tube.
Optimum values for the cold orifice diameter (d/D), the angle of the control valve (f), the
length of the vortex tube (L/D), and the diameter of the inlet nozzle (d/D) are found to be
approximately d/DE 0.5, , L/DE 20, and d/DE 0.33, respectively, which are expected to be
fruitful for vortex tube designers.
The inlet gas pressure should be 2 bar (for optimal efficiency) while the higher inlet pressure
is due to high temperature separation. Inlet gas with helium gives higher temperature
difference than those found from the oxygen, methane, and air
The inlet pressure is the necessary driving force for the energy separation. Experiments shows
that the higher the inlet pressure, the greater the temperature difference of the outlet stream.

The cold fraction is an important parameter influencing the performance of

the energy separation in the vortex tube and there is an optimum value to
obtain maximum temperature difference and it is not the same for
maximum enrgy separation.
The effect of number of nozzle is very important. For Constant inlet
pressure test. It is clear that increasing number of nozzle increase the
temperature difference between inlet and outlet. Also the study indicates
that there could be optimum number of jet maximum load that require
further investigation.
The vortex tube length ( vortex stopper location) has direct effect on the
performance of the vortex tube. The data shows that as vortex stopper
moves far from the vortex generator the energy separation performance
increase which is true as long the distanced moved is below 14 times the
vortex tube diameter ( which was the investigated range)
Insulation has minimal effect on vortex tube cooling and heating
capabilities.

ADVANTAGES OF VORTEX TUBE

No moving parts to

wear out

No electricity or chemicals
Small, lightweight
Low in cost
Maintenance free
Instant cold air
Durable, stainless steel construction
Adjustable temperatures from -45C to +126C

APPLICATIONS OF VORTEX TUBE

CNC Machines

Refrigerators
Cooling of firemens suits

Heating processes
Nuclear reactor
Cooling of equipments in laboratories
Temperature control of divers air suppliers
Manned underwater habitants
Hyperbaric chambers
Liquefactions of natural gas

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ranque GJ. Experiments on expansion in a vortex with simultaneous exhaust of hot air and cold air. J
Phys Radium (Paris) 1933;4:1124 S-115, June. Also translated as General Electric Co., Schenectady Works
Library 1947; T.F. 3294.
Ranque GJ. Method and apparatus for obtaining from a fluid under pressure two outputs of fluid at
different temperatures. US patent 1:952,281, 1934.
Hilsch R. The use of expansion of gases in a centrifugal field as a cooling process. Rev Sci Instrum
1947;18(2):10813.
Westley R. A bibliography and survey of the vortex tube. College of Aeronautics. Cranfield note, UK, 1954.
Curley W, McGree Jr R. Bibliography of vortex tubes. Refrigeration Engineering .
Kalvinskas L. Vortex Tubes: An extension of Wesleys bibliography. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Inst of Technology Literature Search, 56, Part 2, 1956.
Dobratz BM. Vortex tubes: a bibliography. Lawrence Radiation Laboratory UCRL-7829, 1964.
Nash JM. The RanqueHilsch vortex tube and its application to spacecraft environmental control systems.
http://arizonavortex.com/vortextubes.html
http://newmantools.com/vortex.com