CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Affzal, Aiknath Sharma, Amit Pareek, Ashish Jangid, Chetan
Kumar Prajapat, Ravi Saini students of B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) 8th semester have
submitted their project report entitled Vortex Tube Refrigeration under my guidance.

Mr. Manoj Verma

Assistant Professor

CANDIDATES DECLARATION
We hereby declare that the work, which is being presented in the project report, entitled
Vortex Tube Refrigeration in partial fulfillment for the award of degree of Bachelor of
Technology in department of Mechanical Engineering and submitted to the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Sri Balaji College of Engineering and Technology Jaipur, Rajasthan
Technical University is a record of our own investigations carried under the guidance of Mr.
Manoj Verma, Department of mechanical Engineering, Sri Balaji College of Engineering
and Technology Jaipur .
I have not submitted the matter presented in this project anywhere for the award of
any other Degree.

Affzal

12ESBME001

Aiknath Sharma

12ESBME002

Amit Pareek

12ESBME007

Ashish Jangid

12ESBME011

Chetan kumar prajapat

12ESBME014

Ravi Saini

12ESBME039

B.Tech
SBCET Jaipur

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to thank respected Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary, Mr. Vijay Jangid and
Mr. Manoj Verma for giving us such a wonderful opportunity to expand our knowledge for
our own branch and giving us guidelines to present a project report. It helped us a lot to
realize of what we study for.
Secondly, we would like to thank our parents who patiently helped us as. We went
through our work and helped to modify and eliminate some of the irrelevant or un-necessary
stuffs.
Thirdly, we would like to thank our friends who helped us to make our work more
organized and well-stacked till the end.
Next, we would thank Microsoft for developing such a wonderful tool like MS Word.
It helped our work a lot to remain error-free.

ABSTRACT
A vortex tube is a Thermo-fluidic device, which separate cold and hot streams from a single
injection of pressurized gas. Without any moving parts or chemical reaction within the tube,
the interesting phenomenon of energy separation results only from fluid dynamic effects.
The main part of a typical counter-flow vortex tube is a straight tube with a tangential
injection, through which compressed gas is injected into the tube. There are two exits, located
at different ends of a counter-flow vortex tube, or at the same end for a uni-flow vortex tube.
A control plug is positioned inside the tube away from the injection point, which has a
smaller dimension than the inner diameter of the tube, and this allows the gas to escape from
the small gap between the control plug and the tube. The cold exit is located in the central
part of the tube at the same end of the injection, while the hot exit is the gap between the plug
and the tube. When the compressed gas is injected into the tube tangentially at a high
velocity, two streams with different temperatures will be generated d exhausted from the two
exits of the tube. This phenomenon of temperature separation in a vortex tube is known as the
Ranque effect.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE

PAGE NO.

Certificate

Candidates Declaration

ii

Acknowledgemt

iii

Abstract

iv

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Vortex Tube Refrigeration System

1.2 Introductory Backgrounds

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Statement of research

2.1.1 Different types of vortex tube

2.1.2 Working medium

2.1.3 Geometry of the tube

2.1.4 Flow visualization

12

2.2 Reasearch Objective

14

Chapter 3 Design and Fabrication

16

3.1 Geometrical Effects on the Tube Performance

16

3.2 Ratio of Tube Length over Diameter

16

3.3 Vortex Tube Design Specification

17

3.4 parts of vortex tube refrigeration system

18

3.4.1 Air compressor

18

3.4.2 Presser gauge

18

3.4.3 Tube Length

19

3.3.4 Tube Diameter

19

3.4.5 Inlet nozzle

20

3.4.6 Diaphram

21

3.4.7 Generator

21

3.4.8 Chamber of vortex tube

21

3.4.9 Outer part of chamber

22

3.4.10 Hot end side tube

23

3.4.11 Cold end side tube

23

3.4.12 Conical valve

24

3.4.13 Frame

24

3.4.14 Complete Setup Of Vortex Tube Refrigeration System

24

Chapter 4 Estimation of the Temperature

25

4.1 Estimation Temperature

25

4.2 The Heating Effect in a Vortex Tube

26

4.3 Validation of the Flow Structure

27

4.4 Analysis of Counter Flow Vortex Tube

28

Advantage & future scope

32

Conclusion

33

Reference

34

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure

Title

Page

Figure 1.1

Flow diagram of a vortex tube

Figure 1.2

Flow structure in a counter-flow vortex tube

Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.2

Airflow structure in a counter-flow vortex tube

Airflow structure in a counter-flow vortex tube 2

5
6

Figure 2.3

Structure of a conical vortex tube

Figure 2.4
Figure 2.5
Figure 2.6
Figure 2.7

Structure of the double-circuit vortex tube

Curved vortex tubes
Different inlet nozzles in the vortex tube
Investigation of the effect of the control plug

Figure 2.8

Result of the flow visualization

13

Figure 2.9

Surface trajectory on the wall of the vortex tube

13

Figure 3.1
Figure 3.2
Figure 3.3
Figure 3.4

Parts flow diagram

Air compressor
Presser gauge
Total Tube Length of Vortex Tube

16
18
18
19

Figure 3.5
Figure 3.6
Figure 3.7

Main inlet nozzle

Diaphragm design
Generator design

20
21
21

Figure 3.8

Design Of Vortex Tube Chamber

22

8
10
11

Figure 3.9

outer part of chamber

22

Figure 3.10

Assembly of vortex tube chamber

22

Figure 3.11

total assemble of chamber

23

Figure 3.12

hot end side tube length

23

Figure 3.13

cold end side tube

23

Figure 3.14

conical valve

24

Figure 3.15

Frame

24

Figure 3.16

Complete Setup Of Vortex Tube Refrigeration System

24

Figure 4.1

Helical movement of the flow inside the vortex tube

27

Figure 4.2

Divisional flow pattern inside a counter-flow vortex tube

30

LIST OF TABLE
Table No.

Table Name

Page No.

3.3

Vortex Tube Design Specification

17

4.5

Presser Temperature Variation Table

30