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Nozzle parameters affecting vortex tube energy


separation performance
Article in Heat and Mass Transfer April 2013
DOI: 10.1007/s00231-012-1099-2

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3 authors:
Mohammad O. Hamdan

Basel Alsayyed

American University of Sharjah

United Arab Emirates University

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Heat Mass Transfer


DOI 10.1007/s00231-012-1099-2

ORIGINAL

Nozzle parameters affecting vortex tube energy separation


performance
Mohammad O. Hamdan Basel Alsayyed
Emad Elnajjar

Received: 16 December 2011 / Accepted: 27 November 2012


Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Abstract This experimental study reports the effect of


nozzle parameters on the energy separation of the vortex
tube. The results indicate that maximum energy separation
is achieved with tangential nozzle orientation while the
symmetry/asymmetry of nozzles has a minimal effect on
the performance of the energy separation. For current
selected conditions and parameters, the study shows that
the optimum number of nozzles for maximum energy
separation is around 4 nozzles.
List of symbols
COP
Coefficient of performance
Cp
Specific heat constant (kJ/kg K)
D
Vortex tube inner diameter (m)
Pin
Inlet pressure (bar)
m_ h
Hot mass flow rate (kg/s)
m_ c
Cold mass flow rate (kg/s)
m_ in
Inlet mass flow rate (kg/s)
RHVT Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube
r
Radial coordinate
Th
Hot outlet temperature (C)
Tc
Cold outlet temperature (C)
Tin
Inlet temperature (C)
DTh
Temperature difference between the inlet
and the hot outlet, DTh = Th - Tin
DTc
Temperature difference between the inlet
and the cold outlet, DTc = Tin - Tc
z
Axial coordinate

M. O. Hamdan (&)  B. Alsayyed  E. Elnajjar


Department of Mechanical Engineering, United Arab Emirates
University (UAE), P.O. Box 17555, Al-Ain,
United Arab Emirates
e-mail: MohammadH@uaeu.ac.ae

Dimensionless axial coordinate representing the


distance between the vortex generator and the
vortex stopper, Z = z/D

Greek symbols
e Cold mass fraction e = mc/min
h Tangential coordinate
/ Tangent nozzle orientation angle
Subscripts
HP Heat pump
R
Refrigerator

1 Introduction
The vortex tube is a thermal static tube that separates
compressed gas flow to two streams; one stream colder
than the inlet flow while the other stream is hotter than the
inlet flow. The vortex tube does not have any moving parts
and the separation occurs due to vortex flow generation
without requiring any external mechanical work or heat
transfer. The vortex tube was first discovered by Ranque
[1, 2] who was granted a French patent for the device in
1932, and a United States patent in 1934. Ranque
encountered the vortex tube phenomenon while he was
experimentally working with vortex tube pump in 1928. In
1945, Rudolf Hilsch [3] conducted an experiment on vortex
tube that focused on the thermal performance with different
inlet pressure and different geometrical parameters.
In the recent years it was known that vortex tube is a low
cost and an effective solution for many spot cooling
problems. The separation mechanism inside the vortex tube
remains until today not completely understood [4]. The
ability to obtain either hot or cold flow streams using
compressed gas, allowed the use of vortex tube in many

123

Heat Mass Transfer

engineering applications such as cooling of electronics,


cooling of food, cooling of firemens suit and cooling of
machinery during operation. Despite its small capacity, the
Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT) is very useful for
certain thermal management applications because of its
simplicity, high durability, compactness, light weight,
robustness, reliability, low maintenance cost and safety [5].
The RHVT can be classified into two types [6]: (1) the
counter-flow RHVT and (2) the uni-flow RHVT. In
the counter flow RHVT type the cold flow move in the
opposite direction with respect to the hot stream, while in
the uni-flow type, the hot and cold streams flow in the same
direction. In general, the counter-flow RHVT is recommended over the uni-flow RHVT for its efficient energy
separation [6].
Vortex tube is covered extensively in literatures through
experimental and numerical analysis. The experimental
work of Nimbalkar and Muller [7] indicated that there is an
optimum diameter of the cold end orifice for achieving
maximum energy separation. Also, the results [7] showed
that the maximum value of energy separation was always
reachable at a 60 % cold fraction irrespective of the orifice
diameter and the inlet pressure. The optimum diameter to
the length ratio of the hot side was investigated by Dincer
et al. [8, 9]. The vortex tube performance was investigated
for three different working gases: air, oxygen and nitrogen
and the results were reported using streakline visualizations
in a vortex tube made of Perspex [10]. Aydn and Baki [10]
and Hamdan et al. [11] indicated that inlet pressure and
cold mass fraction were the most important operating
parameters. Hamdan et al. [11] in their experimental work
studied effect of several operating and geometrical
parameters on the thermal performance of the vortex tube,
where the location effect of the vortex stopper, the inlet gas
pressure, the number of vortex generator inlet nozzles and
the insulation were covered during the study. Eiamsa-ard
[12] investigated the effect multiple inlet nozzles, the cold
orifice diameter ratios and inlet pressure. Eiamsa-ard [12]
reported that energy separation enhanced as number of
nozzle increased to four nozzles. The increase in the nozzle
number and the supply pressure leads to the rise of the
swirl/vortex intensity and thus the energy separation in the
tube The effect of vortex entrance condition is reported in
[13] which indicated that vortex tube can be enhanced by
rounding the entrance. It was reported [6] that cooling the
vortex tube can enhance the cooling capability by 59 %.
Xue and Arjomandi [14] reported that the vortex angle has
direct effect on vortex tube and that smaller vortex angles
demonstrate a larger temperature difference and better
performance for the heating efficiency of the vortex tube.
Scientists worked on improving vortex tube by redesign the
nozzle gas inlet and utilizing diffuser vortex tube which
showed reasonable enhancement [15]. A modification to

123

vortex tube was proposed [16] by introducing double-circuit


vortex tube which showed enhancement in the vortex tube
performance. The effect of number of nozzle on the vortex
tube temperature gradient between cold and hot outlet was
investigated by Kirmaci et al. [1719] who showed that the
temperature gradient between the hot and cold fluid
decreases with increasing of the orifice nozzle number.
Other scientists modeled and analyzed the vortex tube
using numerical analysis with different turbulent model.
Numerical study showed acceptable agreement with published data [2023]. A full discussion of 3D numerical
study is presented in Ref. [21] which report maximum COP
of 0.59 as a heat pump and 0.83 as a refrigerator. Behera
et al. [22] reported numerically that the secondary circulation degrade the performance of the vortex tube. It was
reported numerically that the magnitude of velocity angle
is reversely proportional to the vortex pipe diameter [23].
From recent published work, it is clear that researchers are
exploring the effect of many parameters on the vortex tube
performance. The optimization and the interactions among
these different parameters were evaluated by Alsayyed
et al. [24] using design of experiment (DOE) and by Pinar
et al. [25] using Taguchi method. Alsayyed et al. [24]
reported that mass fraction and inlet pressure are the most
important factors. Pinar et al. [25] reported that that temperature difference goes up with the increase in inlet
pressure and the cold mass fraction and that temperature
difference decreases with the increase in nozzle number.
The current study investigates the effect of nozzles
orientation, numbers and symmetric/asymmetric arrangements on the energy separation. Also the study reports COP
calculation for the effect of inlet pressure and vortex
stopper location. The performance of vortex tube on energy
separation is evaluated by measuring inlet/outlet temperatures and mass flow rate and results are reported by calculating the coefficient of performance (COP).

2 Experimental setup
A two-dimensional cross section of used vortex tube is
shown in Fig. 1a. Room temperature compressed air is used
as working fluid at different inlet pressure values. The
compressed air enters in the middle of the vortex tube to a
chamber that distributes the air into multiple inlet nozzles
that promote vortex flow generation within the vortex generator, Fig. 1b. The vortex flow get separated to two outlets
where hot air leaves from the outer perimeter of the vortex
while cold air leaves from the center of vortex at the opposite
direction as shown in Fig. 1a. A vortex stopper shown in
Fig. 1c is used to stop the flow from rotating while leaving
the hot side of the vortex tube. The detail design and
dimension of the vortex generator is shown in Table 1. The

Heat Mass Transfer


Fig. 1 The vortex tube; a a 2-D
cross-section of the vortex tube,
b vortex generator, and c vortex
stopper

schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in


Fig. 2. The compressed air is provided through compressor
storage tank to assure uniform pressure with minimum variation. The storage tank size is 1 m3 and the system is kept
running for half an hour before conducting the test to allow
system to warm up and tank temperature to stabilize. The
compressor maximum rated pressure is 12 bars, even though
all runs where for inlet pressure of 5 bars or below. The
compressed gas passed through a dehumidifier, oil filter and
particle separation filter to assure the use of clean dry air. The
air is expanded in the vortex tube chamber and separated into
hot air stream and cold air stream. The cold stream in the
central region flows out of the tube through the central orifice
nearer to the inlet nozzle, while the hot stream in the outer
annulus leaves the tube through other outlet far from the
inlet. The flow rate of the inlet air is regulated through flow
rotameter valve while the pressure is controlled using a
pressure controller that is attached on the compressor tank
outlet. The volumetric flow rate of the inlet stream is
measured by a glass flow rotameters with uncertainty of
0.5 L/min (2.9 9 10-3 kg/min at 5 bar). The cold outlet flow
stream is measured using one of two glass flow rotameters
with uncertainty of 0.5 L/min (5.8 9 10-4 kg/min at 1 bar)
and 0.05 L/min (5.8 9 10-5 kg/min at 1 bar), respectively.
The low accuracy of 0.5 L/min (5.8 9 10-4 kg/min at 1 bar)
rotameter is used when high cold flow rate is expected which
occurs when the hot side is nearly closed. The high accuracy
of 0.05 L/min (5.8 9 10-5 kg/min at 1 bar) rotameter is used
when low cold flow rate is expected which occurs when the
hot side is nearly fully open. The temperatures of the inlet
and outlet flows are measured with multiple thermocouples

to assure better average temperature measurements. In the


present study, the vortex tube is made of stainless steel with
inner diameter of 10 mm. The whole length of the tube is
137 mm. The outlet diameter of the cold side is 4.5 mm and
hot side end is around 8 mm. The inlet flow rate is controlled
through the flow meter valve which implicitly determines the
inlet pressure. The temperature is measured using typeK thermocouple with uncertainty of 0.3 C. In this experiment, different inlet pressure sets were used in the test
ranging from 2 to 5 bars at room inlet temperature.
All experimental runs are conducted in similar manner
following a specific procedure, where the compressor runs
for half hour to allow reaching steady state temperature of
inlet compressed air. The pressure inside the pressurized
tank is kept higher than 6 bar while a check valve is used to
assure continuous uniform inlet pressure of 5 bars to the
experiment. Incase pressure drop inside the tank below 6
bars the test is hold till pressure is build up inside the air
tank. A short plastic pipe connection is used at the cold/hot
outlet to allow fixing the thermocouples and to reduce the
effect of heat transfer. The temperatures are logged in over
a period of time using portable handheld data logger with
eight data inputs. A Borden tube pressure gage with 0.2 bar
uncertainty is used to measure the inlet pressure.

3 Mathematical analysis
The efficiency of a refrigerator is expressed in terms of the
coefficient of performance (COP) which is expressed as
follow, [26]:

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Heat Mass Transfer


Table 1 Detailed design and dimension of the vortex generator
Jet
depth

Jet
width

Jet cavity
depth

Jet cavity
diameter

Cold outlet
diameter

h0

D0

0.863

2.33

0.863

14.48

5.430

5.416

7.236

Unites are in (mm)

COP

4 Results and discussion

Desired output
Required input

When vortex tube is used as a cooling device (cold stream is


used), the device is called refrigerator and the COP is calculated
by dividing the desired output (cooling load) on required input
(compression energy). The compression energy is calculated
for isothermal process (at constant temperature) which
represents the minimum ideal compression work. While the
cooling load is calculated for ideal gas as shown below:
Cooling load
Isothermal compression energy
m_ c Cp Tin  Tc

m_ in RTin lnPin =Patm


 
Cp 1  Tc =Tin
COPR e
R lnPin =Patm

COPR

1
2

The isothermal compression energy assumption is adopted


in this study since the compressor is kept running in a
steady mode while compressed air is stored in a large
container (1 m3) with enough surface area to keep the
compressed air at uniform room temperature during the
test.
When vortex tube is used as a heating device (hot stream
is used), the device is called heat pump and the COP of the
heat pump is defined as follow:
Heating load
Isothermal compression energy
m_ h Cp Th  Tin

m_ in RTin lnPin =Patm


 
Cp Th =Tin  1
1  e
R lnPin =Patm

COPHP

COPHP

123

3
4

The behavior of the vortex tube when cold and hot outlets
are brought to the same outlet pressure is shown Fig. 3
which shows that the cold and hot outlet temperature difference with respect to the inlet temperature versus the cold
mass fraction (e). The present experimental data, Fig. 3a,
shows a good qualitative agreement with earlier published
data [3, 6, 11] considering the geometry and the inlet
conditions differences. As expected and reported in literature, there is a non-monotonic relation between outlets
temperature difference and cold mass fraction indicating
that there is an optimum cold mass fraction for maximum
hot temperature and minimum cold temperature. As shown
if Fig. 3a, the optimum temperature at the cold outlet is
(DTc = -14.7 C at e = 0.19) and at the hot outlet is
(DTh = -17.4 C at e = 0.73) which shows that optimum
cold and hot temperature does not occur at the same cold
mass fraction. As shown in Fig. 3b, the maximum COP of
cooling is achieved at wide mass fraction range 0.380.73
which is higher than the coldest point which occur at
e = 0.19. The relation between COP of cooling versus cold
mass fraction and cold outlet temperature is presented in
Eqs. (1) and (2). The mass fraction where maximum COPR
is reached for cold outlet is different than the mass fraction
where coldest temperature is attained and this is expected
since COPR depends on mass fraction and cold outlet
temperature. Correspondingly, the interaction between
temperature difference and mass flow rate is used to calculate the COP which causes the optimum for temperature
difference to be different from the one for the COP.
The effect of inlet pressure on outlet temperature and
COP are shown in Fig. 4a, b, respectively. The coldest and
hottest temperatures increase as inlet pressure increases

Heat Mass Transfer


Fig. 2 A schematic diagram of
the test bed with the locations of
collected data points

which means as reported by other researchers that energy


separation enhances as inlet pressure increases. As shown
in Fig. 4b, the COP increases as inlet pressure increases.
The COP of the cold outlet does not increase in the same
rate after the pressure ratio of 4 which indicates that the
pressure have less impact on the COP and other parameters
limitation such as nozzles characteristics start dominating
the performance. The increase of energy separation with
the increase of inlet pressure is expected since the main
driving force for the energy separation is the vortex angular
momentum.
The effect of number of inlet nozzles is shown in
Fig. 5a, b. The results show that there is an optimum
number of nozzles where the vortex COPHP reach a maximum and it is clear that increasing the number of the inlet
nozzles does not provide maximum COP. Such behavior is
due to the relation between number of nozzles and nozzle
outlet velocity which is directly related to the vortex
angular velocity. The same argument does not apply for the
COPR where its value decreases as the result of increasing
the number of nozzles. At low number of inlet nozzles
(such as one inlet) the pressure losses is high and generated
vortex is not sufficiently strong to support resilient energy
separation. However, at high number of nozzles (such as
six inlets) the nozzle outlet velocity gets smaller since
more nozzles are available to vent the compressed air.
Therefore, for current vortex geometry it was found that
the optimum number of inlet nozzles is around 4 nozzles
for the hot stream case.
Figure 6a, b are relating the effect of vortex stopper
location to the energy separation. Four different locations
of the vortex stopper are used as marked in Fig. 1 where
Z axis located as the surface between the vortex generator
and the vortex tube. The vortex stopper is a radial fin fitting
with 5 mm radius that is used to stop the flow from rotation
and hence control the size of secondary circulation zone.
The secondary circulation zone occurs between the vortex

Fig. 3 The cold mass fraction effect on the a cold/hot outlets flow
and b COP for cold/hot outlets flow

generator and the vortex stopper. As shown in Fig. 6a, b


that the vortex stopper location has modest impact on the
performance of the vortex tube and that COP of cooling
enhances as the vortex stopper move far from the vortex
generator. However, such behavior was not observed for

123

Heat Mass Transfer

Fig. 4 The effect of inlet pressure at 26 C inlet temperature on the


a cold/hot outlets flow and b maximum COP

the COP of the heat pump. It is expected that there is an


optimum distance between vortex generator and vortex
stopper since between these inserts the secondary circulation zone exists where energy continues to separate due to
secondary circulation that takes place in the z - r plane.
The secondary circulation supports the main reason of
energy separation which is the vortex flow in the h - r
plane inside the vortex generator. Hence, as secondary
circulation zone increases, the energy separation increases.
On the other hand, the increase of the secondary circulation
zone will cause higher heat transfer loss to the surrounding.
Hence, it is expected that there is an optimum distance
(Z) which depends on the vortex geometry and operating
conditions. The vortex tube length to diameter ratio which
supports the existence of the secondary circulation zone is
a very important design parameter which is not investigated in this work and needs more exploration. The case of
no stopper is shown in Fig. 6a, b which occurs at distance
of Z = 9.7. In the case of no stopper, the air leaves through
the hot outlet where outlet acts as a stopper. The hot air

123

Fig. 5 The effect of number of nozzles at 4 bar inlet pressure and


26 C inlet temperature on the a cold/hot outlets flow and b maximum
COP

stops rotating as it moves outside the hot outlet due to the


shape of the outlet which consists of two side holes. The
results show continuation of earlier observation that as
Z distance increases the COPR increases while COPHP
decreases. The increase in the COPR means that having
longer circulation zone promotes cold air separation. While
the reduction in the COPHP means that longer circulation
zone promotes heat loss from the vortex tube wall.
The collected data shows that tangential inlet nozzles
provide the best performance of energy separation as
shown in Fig. 7a, b. It is clear that having tangential nozzles generate the strongest vortex which provide the best
energy separation. As Fig. 7a shows, the maximum temperature difference is achieved when inlet flow is introduced in tangential form; however, such maximum
temperature is achieved at different cold mass fraction.
Also, this indicates that the main mechanism of energy
separation is the existence of a robust vortex flow. As
shown in Fig. 7b, as inlet nozzles angle increases the
performance drops dramatically.

Heat Mass Transfer

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6 The effect of the location of the swirl stopper at 4 bar inlet
pressure and 26 C inlet temperature on the a cold/hot outlets flow
and b maximum COP

In Fig. 8a, the results show that the effect of nozzle


arrangement in symmetry form compared to asymmetry
one has minimum effect on energy separation. It is clear
that the arrangement of nozzle in symmetry or asymmetry
arrangement has minimum effect on the angular momentum of the vortex flow which causes the energy separation.
Figure 8a shows the results for 2 nozzles that are designed
in symmetry and asymmetry arrangements. The arrangement of 3, 4 and 5 nozzles are not studied since the maximum difference in nozzle arrangement is expected for 2
nozzles which did not show major difference for the two
arrangements used which indicates that any changes of
arrangements in the 3, 4, and nozzles will have even less
effect. Figure 8b shows the COP obtained for the 2 nozzles
arrangement for symmetric and asymmetric arrangements.
It is clear that performance of energy separation of the
vortex tube is the does not change dramatically and that
both arrangements produce same COP for either cold or
hot outlet.

Fig. 7 The effect of nozzles angle on the a cold/hot outlets flow and
b maximum COP

5 Conclusions
A series of experiments have been conducted to investigate
the performance of the vortex tube under several design
parameters mainly: (1) inlet pressure, (2) cold mass fraction, (3) number of inlet nozzles, (4) vortex stopper location, (5) nozzle inlet angle, and (6) nozzles arrangements.
The following were concluded from the experimental data:
1.

The inlet pressure is the driving force for the energy


separation. Experimental data show that a higher
temperature difference and a higher COP are achieved
as inlet pressure increases. However, the increase in
COP depends on other parameters related to the vortex
tube.

123

Heat Mass Transfer

(a)
6.

introduced and consequently affecting the vortex flow


strength inside the vortex tube. The change in the COP
is clearly seen for nozzles angle greater than 30 degree.
The nozzles symmetry or asymmetry has insignificant
effect on the vortex tube performance.

Acknowledgments The authors would like to acknowledge the


support provided by United Arab Emirates University. This work was
financially supported by the Faculty of Engineering at the United
Arab Emirates University.

References

(b) 0.12

2 Jets-beside (R )
2 Jets-beside (HP)
2 Jets-across (R )
2 Jets-across (HP)

0.1

COP

0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

Fig. 8 The effect of nozzles arrangement using symmetry/asymmetry


two nozzles at 4 bar inlet pressure and 26 C inlet temperature on the
cold/hot outlets flow a Outlet temperature and b COP values

2.

3.

4.

5.

The cold mass 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 which is not
the same for maximum energy load separation or COP.
The effect of number of nozzle is very important. For
constant inlet pressure test, it is clear that there an
optimum number of nozzles for maximum COPHP
which depends on the vortex tube operating condition
and parameters. For the current vortex geometry, the
increase in the number of nozzles shows an inverse
effect on COPR.
The secondary circulation zone is determined by
controlling the vortex stopper location. The data show
that as vortex stopper moves far from the vortex
generator the COPR increases, thus, supporting the
idea that there is a secondary circulation inside the
vortex tube which enhances the energy separation.
The nozzles angle has strong impact on the performance of the vortex tube. It affects how the flow is

123

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