THERMAL SCIENCE

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Abdol Reza Bramo

,

Nader Pourmahmoud

CFD SIMULATION OF LENGTH TO DIAMETER RATIO EFFECTS ON THE ENERGY SEPARATION IN A VORTEX TUBE

ABSTRACT
The objective of the present computational fluid dynamics analysis is an attempt to investigate the effect of length to diameter ratio on the fluid flow characteristics and energy separation phenomenon inside the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. In this numerical study, performance of Ranque-Hilsch vortex tubes (RHVT), with length to diameter ratios (L/D) of 8, 9.3, 10.5, 20.2, 30.7 and 35 with six straight nozzles was investigated. It includes generating better understanding of the effects of the stagnation point location on the performance of RHVT. It was found that the best performance was obtained when the ratio of vortex tube length to the diameter was 9.3 and also fort this case the stagnation point was found to be the farthest from the inlet. The results show that the closer distance to the hot end is produced the larger magnitude of the temperature difference. Computed results show good agreement with published experimental results.
KEYWORDS
Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube, CFD simulation, stagnation point, energy separation, thermal performance
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2010-10-04
PAPER REVISED: 2010-11-22
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2010-12-24
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI101004008B
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2011, VOLUME 15, ISSUE Issue 3, PAGES [833 - 848]
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CFD simulation of length to diameter ratio effects on the energy separation in a vortex tube

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