Effect of Geometrical Parameters on the Coefficient of Performance of the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube

Abstract

The Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube is a simple device with no moving parts and no mechanical operations. This tube separates the inlet air into two distinctive regions; an outward high temperature region and an inner low-temperature one. A computational study of the vortex tube is presented in this article using the ANSYS Fluent® software whose results showed good agreement with the experimental measurements. The effects of different geometrical parameters such as the tube length to diameter ratio and the cold orifice size on the coefficient of performance of the tube were investigated. The results showed that the coefficient of performance (COP) of the tube is highly affected by the tube length to diameter ratio (), and this effect varies when operating at different cold mass fractions where the maximum coefficient of performance occur at cold mass fraction of 0.64. The results also showed that the coefficient of performance of the tube is also affected by the cold orifice to tube diameter ratio ( ) and that the maximum (COP) at any ( ) ratio occurs also at a cold mass fraction of 0.64.