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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-469-4

ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-470-0

Second Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference
April, 2-5, 2017, Las Vegas, NV, USA

ANALYSIS ON THE ENERGY SEPARATION PROCESS IN VORTEX TUBE WITH UNSTEADY VORTEX CHARACTERISTICS

Get access (open in a dialog) pages 1721-1730
DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2017.fna.017978

Abstract

In Ranque-Hilsch vortex tubes, the explanation about the energy or temperature separation has not come to a consistent view since it was invented last 30s, and the coupling method between the flow field and the energy transportation is still cloudy. This paper based on the vortex breakdown and precessing vortex core (PVC) phenomenon, revealed the essential unsteady swirl flow field in the vortex tube.
The occurrence of PVC can bring the periodic fluctuation of flow field, especially the surrounding of the reverse flow boundary. Thanks to the tangential injection to the vortex chamber, the peripheral layer locates at the high-pressure zone, while the inner layer lies on the low-pressure zone. The PVC can take the gas to move back and forth between the two pressure zones in the radial direction. Considering this kind of motion, this paper raised a Brayton cycle to describe the state change of a gas pocket, when it serves as a medium to realize the energy transfer from inner layer to peripheral layer.
An energy transfer model was established on the unsteady vortex characteristics to explain the energy separation process in vortex tube. The energy transfer directivity was discussed and the heat flow and the power needed to pump the heat were deduced in this paper.