i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8

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Numerical investigation of gas species and energy separation

in the RanqueeHilsch vortex tube using real gas model

T. Dutta a,*, K.P. Sinhamahapatra b, S.S. Bandyopadhyay a

a
Cryogenic Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
b
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India

article info abstract

Article history: A three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is used to investigate the
Received 22 February 2011 phenomena of energy and species separation in a vortex tube (VT) with compressed air at
Received in revised form normal atmospheric temperature and cryogenic temperature as the working fluid. In this
30 May 2011 work the NIST real gas model is used for the first time to accurately compute the ther-
Accepted 3 June 2011 modynamic and transport properties of air inside the VT. CFD simulations are carried out
Available online 17 June 2011 using the perfect gas law as well. The computed performance curves (hot and cold outlet
temperatures versus hot outlet mass fraction) at normal atmospheric temperature
Keywords: obtained with both the real gas model and the perfect gas law are compared with the
Vortex tube experimental results. The separation of air into its main components, i.e. oxygen and
Computational fluid dynamics nitrogen is observed, although the separation effect is very small. The magnitudes of both
Temperature the energy separation and the species separation at cryogenic temperature were found to
Thermal diffusion be smaller than those at normal atmospheric temperature.
ª 2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Etude numérique des gaz et de la séparation de l’énergie dans

un tube vortex Ranque-Hilsch à l’aide d’un modèle employant
un gaz réel
Mots clés : Tube vortex ; Dynamique numérique des fluides ; Température ; Diffusion thermique

1. Introduction effect. VT was invented by a French physicist, Ranque (1933,

The RanqueeHilsch vortex tube (VT) is a simple device that
separates a compressed gas stream into two lower pressure
streams with one stream having higher temperature and the
other having lower temperature than the inlet stream. Such
a separation of the flow into streams of higher and lower
temperatures is referred to as energy (temperature) separation
1934). Later Hilsch (1947), a German engineer, carried out
comprehensive experimental and theoretical studies to
improve the efficiency of the VT. Nowadays, VTs are extensively
used in industry for producing refrigeration for a variety of
applications, such as to cool parts of machines, dehumidifying
gas samples, cooling electronic or electrical control cabinets,
solidifying polymers, chilling environmental chambers, etc.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 3222 281453; fax: þ91 3222 282258.
E-mail address: tan_dat2003@yahoo.com (T. Dutta).
0140-7007/$ e see front matter ª 2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2011.06.004
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
Nomenclature
cp specific heat (J kg 1 K 1)
1 u
k thermal conductivity (W m K 1)
T temperature (K)
Greek alphabets
3 turbulence dissipation rate (m2 s 3)
k turbulence kinetic energy (m2 s 2)
Several researchers tried to explain the complex
phenomenon of energy separation through experimental,
analytical and numerical investigations. Fulton (1950) sug-
gested that transfer of kinetic energy from the higher angular
velocity axial region to the lower angular velocity peripheral
region because of the shear stress between different fluid
layers led to the formation of a radial temperature gradient
inside the VT. Martynovskii and Alekseev (1956) investigated
the effect of the design parameters of the VT to optimize the
energy separation and efficiency. They observed that the
temperature separation increased with the increase in inlet
pressure. However, the inlet temperature was not found to
affect the temperature separation significantly. Takahama
(1965) experimentally determined the effects of the sizes of
cold orifice, inlet nozzle and vortex chamber on the energy
separation in a counter-flow VT to maximize its efficiency. He
provided empirical formulas to obtain the profiles of velocity,
temperature and energy in the VT. Kurosaka (1982) measured
and analyzed the temperature along the axis and near the
inlet of the tube, level of sound pressure and the frequency of
noise. He considered the acoustic streaming as the cause of
energy separation. He also introduced an acoustic muffler to
improve the performance of the VT. Ahlborn and Groves
(1997) measured the tangential and axial velocities in a VT
by using a small Pitot probe. They observed the existence of
secondary circulation in the VT. Effects of different geomet-
rical and thermophysical parameters on energy separation
were experimentally investigated by Saidi and Valipour (2003).
They also investigated the effect of moisture content in air on
energy separation by injecting water into the inlet flow and
observed the temperature separation and efficiency to
decrease with increase in moisture content in the inlet air.
Kirmaci (2009) conducted an experimental investigation and
performed an exergy analysis of temperature separation in
a VT working with air and oxygen. They observed the
temperature separation to decrease with increasing number
of inlet nozzles.
Frohlingsdorf and Unger (1999) numerically studied the
energy separation by modeling the VT experiments of Bruun
(1969) using the software CFX with the ke3 turbulence
model. Kazantseva et al. (2005) numerically solved
compressible NaviereStokes equations by using the software
CFX-TASK flow to observe the flow patterns and the velocity
and temperature fields in a VT. Comparison between the
temperature separations predicted by a CFD model and
experimental data with a commercial VT are presented by
Skye et al. (2006). Farouk and Farouk (2007) presented an
axisymmetric CFD model with the CFD-ACEþ code and using
LES (large eddy simulation) technique to predict the flow field
2119
m viscosity (kg m 1 s 1)
r density (kg m 3)
specific turbulence dissipation rate (s 1)
x hot mass fraction (%)
Subscripts
c cold outlet
h hot outlet
i inlet
and the energy separation in VT. From the instantaneous
streamlines they observed the vortex structures inside the
tube with small vortices mostly in the core region of the tube.
Eiamsa-ard and Promvonge (2007) used standard ke3 and
algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence models with several
discretization schemes (upwind, hybrid, second order
upwind, and QUICK schemes) to numerically simulate the
energy separation in VT. They showed that the “diffusive
transport of mean kinetic energy had a substantial influence
on the maximum temperature separation occurring near the
inlet region”. Dutta et al. (2010) used an axisymmetric CFD
model to compare the influence of four different Reynolds-
Averaged NaviereStokes (RANS) based turbulence models
(standard ke3, RNG ke3, standard keu and SST keu) in pre-
dicting the temperature separation. They observed that the
predictions with the standard ke3 model agree better with the
experimental results.
The possibility of using the VT for separating the compo-
nents of a gas mixture has been investigated by several
researchers. Linderstrom-Lang (1964) experimentally investi-
gated the separation of gas mixtures in the VT by using
different gas mixtures (oxygen and nitrogen, oxygen and
carbon dioxide, oxygen and helium). However, the magnitude
of gas separation was observed to be very low. Centrifugation
effect was identified as the only cause of species separation. In
another experimental study Linderstrom-Lang (1966)
observed that short VT produced a lower temperature sepa-
ration and higher species separation. Marshall (1977) experi-
mentally investigated the species separation with several gas
mixtures in a number of VTs of different sizes and determined
a critical inlet Reynolds number at which the maximum gas
separation was observed. Manohar and Chetan (2002) injected
a mixture of methane and nitrogen into the VT and observed
a partial gas separation with higher mole fraction of methane
at the cold outlet. They identified the inlet pressure and
“number of turns of the hot flow control valve” as the
important factors influencing the separation. Farouk et al.
(2009) used an axisymmetric CFD model with the LES tech-
nique to predict the temperature separation and the separa-
tion of nitrogenehelium mixture in a VT. The species
separation was attributed to the Soret diffusion.
In the present work a three dimensional CFD model is used
to investigate the phenomena of energy and species separa-
tion in a VT with compressed air at normal atmospheric
temperature and cryogenic temperature as the working fluid.
CFD software FLUENT 6.3.26 is used for the simulations. In this
work the NIST real gas model is used for the first time to
incorporate the influence of non-ideal behavior of the working
fluid and accurately compute the thermodynamic and
2120 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
transport properties of air inside the VT. The use of real gas
model becomes more significant in case of flow at cryogenic
temperature, where the thermodynamic and transport prop-
erties of air deviate significantly from the ideal gas behavior.
CFD simulations are carried out using the perfect gas law as
well. Experiments are conducted at normal atmospheric
temperature and the computed performance curves (hot and
cold outlet temperatures versus hot outlet mass fraction)
obtained with both the real gas model and the perfect gas law
are compared with the experimental results. The separation
of air into its main components, i.e. oxygen and nitrogen is
also observed.
2. CFD model of the vortex tube
Flow inside the VT is assumed to be in steady state. The
compressible Reynolds-Averaged NaviereStokes (RANS)
equations along with the continuity and energy equations are
numerically solved using the CFD software FLUENT 6.3.26. In
our previous study (Dutta et al., 2010) four RANS based
turbulence models were investigated and the standard ke3
model was found to be the most suitable one for predicting the
energy separation. Hence, for the present CFD simulation of
VT the standard ke3 model is used. CFD simulations are
carried out using the ideal gas law as well as a real gas model
both at normal atmospheric temperature and cryogenic
temperature to assess the influence of non-ideal behavior of
the working fluid. Details of both the cases are described
below. Use of the real gas model enables to numerically
investigate the phenomenon of separation of air into its main
constituents, i.e. nitrogen and oxygen.
Air is considered a pure fluid while using the ideal gas law.
The following values for the air properties are used:
cp ¼ 1006.43 J kg 1 K 1; m ¼ 1.7894  10 5 kg m 1 s 1 and k ¼ 0.02
42 W m 1 K 1. These are the default values for air given in the
FLUENT materials database. For the cryogenic temperature
case the following values of the air properties (at 0.6 MPa and
115 K) are specified in the computational domain, cp ¼ 116
1.1 J kg 1 K 1, m ¼ 8.4342  10 6 kg m 1 s 1 and k ¼ 0.01165 W
m 1 K 1 (obtained from REFPROP software, version 7.0).
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
real gas model incorporated in FLUENT is used in the present
study. The NIST real gas model available with FLUENT uses
the Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Refrigerants
and Refrigerant Mixtures Database Version 7.0 (REFPROP v7.0)
(Lemmon et al., 2002) to evaluate thermodynamic and trans-
port properties of 39 pure fluids or a mixture of these fluids.
The REFPROP v7.0 database is a shared library that is
dynamically loaded into the solver when the NIST real gas
model is used in a FLUENT session. The REFPROP v7.0 data-
base employs very accurate pure fluid equations of state.
These equations are based on three models: Modified Benedict
WebbeRubin (MBWR) equation of state, Helmholtz energy
equation of state, and extended corresponding states (ECS).
For fluids consisting of multispecies-mixture the mixing-rules
are applied to the Helmholtz energy of the constituents to
compute the thermodynamic properties of the mixture
(FLUENT 6.3.26 User Guide, 2006).
In this study gaseous air is considered as a mixture of
oxygen and nitrogen with 0.2379 part of oxygen by mass.
The equations of state for nitrogen and oxygen given by
Span et al. (1998) and Schmidt and Wagner (1985), respec-
tively, are used in the real gas model in REFPROP v7.0
(Lemmon et al., 2002). Both the equations of state are
expressed explicitly as functions of dimensionless Helm-
holtz energy.
Fig. 1(a)e(c) shows the three dimensional mesh at the inlet
and outlet regions of the VT. A 60 sector of the VT is taken as
the working geometry. The length of the VT is 135 mm and the
inner diameter is 9 mm. Diameter of the cold outlet is 4.5 mm.
The VT has six inlet nozzles with 1 mm  0.55 mm cross
sectional area. Opening of the hot outlet is varied to vary the
hot mass fraction, x. Hexahedral meshes are generated by the
software Gambit 2.3.16 with refinement of meshes near the
wall.
The boundary conditions are as follows:
 Stagnation boundary condition at the inlet with total pres-
sure of 0.6 MPa (abs) and total temperature of 305 K. The
total temperature is taken as 115 K for operation at cryo-
genic temperature.
 Pressure boundary condition at the hot outlet with static
pressure of 0.1 MPa (abs).
 Pressure boundary condition at the cold outlet with static
pressure of 0.1 MPa (abs).
 Zero gradient of temperature at both hot and cold outlets.
 No slip and adiabatic condition at the wall.
The governing equations are discretised by the second order
upwind scheme. Convergence criteria are set as follows:
residual of 10 7 for the continuity equation and 10 9 for other
equations. Global mass balance and energy balance are
checked. The solution is initialized based on inlet boundary
conditions. A systematic grid independence study is carried out
by observing the variation of important parameters like total
temperature difference between the hot and cold outlets and
inlet swirl velocity with different grid resolutions. It is observed
that no significant changes occur with respect to either
parameter if the number of cells is increased beyond 64,527.
Numerical investigations are also carried out at inlet total
pressure of 0.4 MPa (abs) with inlet total temperature of 305 K
and 115 K, respectively. Experiments are conducted for the
inlet pressures of 0.6 MPa (abs) and 0.4 MPa (abs) and inlet
temperature of 305 K to validate the numerical simulations. A
vortex tube of 9 mm inner diameter and 135 mm length with
six rectangular inlet nozzles (1 mm  0.55 mm cross sectional
area) is used to conduct the experiments. Components of the
vortex tube used are shown in Fig. 2(a), while Fig. 2(b) shows
a schematic diagram of the VT (Eiamsa-ard and Promvonge,
2008). Compressed dry air is injected in the vortex tube inlet.
Both the hot and cold outlets are kept open to the atmosphere.
Opening of the valve located at the hot outlet is varied to vary
the hot outlet mass fraction. Volumetric flow rates are
measured at both the outlets by using orifice meters. Pressure
and total temperatures at the inlet and both outlets are
measured by using absolute pressure transducers and Pt 100
temperature sensors, respectively. During every experimental
run the inlet temperature is maintained at a constant value of
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8 2121

Fig. 1 e Mesh at different regions of the VT (a) inlet; (b) hot outlet; (c) cold outlet.

305 K. For a particular experimental run the inlet pressure is
also kept constant.
3. Results of computation with air at normal
atmospheric temperature
Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively, shows the variation in hot outlet
temperature, Th and cold outlet temperature, Tc with hot mass
fraction, x. Both Th and Tc are observed to decrease with
increase in x. Th decreases monotonically with x but Tc
decreases till x < 50% and then increases marginally for
x > 50%. This is attributed to the backflow that occurs at the
cold outlet as the hot outlet flow increases. Fig. 4(a) shows
a magnified view of the axial velocity field near the cold outlet
boundary, while Fig. 4(b) shows the radial distribution of axial
velocity at the cold outlet boundary. Positive value of axial
velocity near the centerline at the cold outlet boundary indi-
cates the flow of air into the VT from the surroundings
through the cold outlet. Maximum 16 m s 1 of axial velocity is
observed at the centre of the cold outlet, which indicates
a strong backflow of air. Intensity of the backflow increases
with increase in x. Higher amount of backflow also occurs for
lower inlet pressure. The temperature of this backflow is that
of ambient. The backflow increases the temperature of the
cold outlet flow. The existence of intense backflow has been
observed in experiments as well. Increase of the cold outlet

Fig. 2 e (a) Components of the counter-flow VT. (b) Schematic diagram of VT (Eiamsa-ard and Promvonge, 2008).
2122 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
Fig. 3 e (a) Variation of Th (K) with x for Ti [ 305 K.
(b) Variation of Tc (K) with x for Ti [ 305 K.
temperature at high hot mass fraction due to backflow has
also been mentioned by Ameri and Behnia (2009).
The hot and cold outlet temperatures predicted by the
present CFD model are found to be very close to the experi-
mental values. Both ideal gas and NIST real gas models predict
Th and Tc with good accuracy. With the ideal gas law, the
maximum deviation in predicting Th is 1.3% only, while the
maximum deviation in predicting Tc is 1.8%. The deviations of
the CFD results with experimental data are even lower when
the real gas model is used. The differences between the two
simulations, however, are quite small. The slopes of the
computed performance curves match fairly well with those of
the experimental results. Thus, it can be concluded that the
present CFD model can be satisfactorily used for the simula-
tion of VT with good accuracy.
Distributions of some of the important flow parameters are
investigated with respect to the VT operating at 0.6 MPa inlet
pressure, 305 K inlet total temperature and x ¼ 28%. The
simulated results using only the real gas model are presented.
Fig. 5(a) shows the static pressure distribution at the inlet
Fig. 4 e (a) Axial velocity (m sL1) distribution near the cold
outlet boundary for Ti [ 305 K. (b) Radial distribution of
axial velocity (m sL1) at the cold outlet for Ti [ 305 K.
region of the VT. Large pressure drop is observed as the
compressed air expands through the nozzle of the VT. Fig. 5(b)
shows the static pressure distribution along the length of the
VT. A radial pressure gradient throughout the tube with
higher pressure near the periphery is observed in this figure.
The expansion of air from the wall to the axis is attributed to
the intense swirling flow inside the VT. The pressure differ-
ential between the wall and the axis decreases gradually from
the inlet region toward the hot outlet.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows distribution of swirl velocity. High
swirl velocity at the nozzle outlet due to expansion of the
compressed air through the nozzle is clearly evident in
Fig. 6(a). Maximum swirl velocity of 388 m s 1 is observed in
this region. Swirl velocity distribution along the length of the
VT is shown in Fig. 6(b). It appears that the flow inside the VT
is predominantly forced vortex flow.
The axial velocity field is shown in Fig. 7. Negative axial
velocity is observed in the core region of the VT. This indicates
that air flows in the positive axial direction near the periphery
and comes out through the hot outlet, but in the core region
air flows in the negative axial direction and finally comes out
from the cold outlet. Highest magnitude of axial velocity in the
return vortex flow (154 m s 1) is observed near the cold outlet
region. From the magnified view of the radial velocity field as
shown in Fig. 8 it is observed that the magnitude of the radial
velocity in major portion of the VT is insignificant compared to
the other velocity components. Negative value of the radial
velocity indicates that the flow in the VT is radially inward.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
Fig. 5 e (a) Static pressure (Pa) distribution at the inlet region for Ti [ 305 K. (b) Static pressure (Pa) distribution along the
vortex tube length for Ti [ 305 K.
Fig. 9, which presents the static temperature distribution,
shows marginal reduction of the static temperature in the
radial direction. The minimum static temperature is observed
at the nozzle outlet due to expansion of the compressed air
through the nozzle. Static temperature is also found to
increase in the axial direction toward the hot outlet. Fig. 10
shows the total temperature distribution along the length of
the VT. The total temperature is found to increase gradually in
both radial and axial directions. The phenomenon of energy
separation is clearly observed in this figure. An overall
temperature separation (DT ¼ Th Tc) of 89 K is observed in
this case. The energy separation is attributed to transfer of
viscous shear work from the inner fluid layers to the periph-
eral fluid layers. This mechanism has been proposed in
several previous works as well (Aljuwayhel et al., 2005; Behera
et al., 2008; Dutta et al., 2010).
The phenomenon of separation of air into its main
constituents, i.e. oxygen and nitrogen is explored by investi-
gating the distribution of oxygen concentration in the tube as
shown in Fig. 11. The separation of gas species is clearly
observed in this figure with higher oxygen concentration in
the cold outlet region and correspondingly higher nitrogen
concentration in the hot outlet region. However, the differ-
ence in oxygen mass fraction between the hot and the cold
outlets is observed to be very small (1.9  10 6). Radial distri-
bution of the oxygen mass fraction shows higher value near
the wall. This is due to the higher centrifugal force on oxygen
2123
owing to its higher molecular weight than nitrogen.
Linderstrom-Lang (1964) considered the centrifugal separa-
tion as the main cause of gas separation in the VT. However,
the difference in oxygen mass fraction between the wall and
the axis is observed to be varying from 1.5  10 8 to 1.9  10 8,
which is much lower than the difference in oxygen mass
fraction between the hot and the cold outlets. This indicates
that Soret diffusion (thermal diffusion) plays a more impor-
tant role in the species separation in the VT. Due to Soret
diffusion the lighter molecules of nitrogen diffuse toward the
hot outlet. This has been reported by Farouk et al. (2009) as
well. CFD simulations of species separation and energy
separation are also carried out for another case at a much
lower inlet temperature.
4. Computation with gaseous air at
cryogenic temperature
The CFD model validated at normal atmospheric temperature
is used with necessary modifications and simulations are
carried out using both ideal and real gas models as above. All
boundary conditions used earlier are applied in this case with
the exception of the inlet total temperature, which is taken as
115 K instead of 305 K. The chosen inlet stagnation tempera-
ture is marginally higher than the saturation temperature of
air (100.8 K) at the inlet stagnation pressure of 0.6 MPa. This is
2124 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8

Fig. 6 e (a) Swirl velocity (m sL1) distribution at the inlet region for Ti [ 305 K. (b) Swirl velocity (m sL1) distribution along the
vortex tube length for Ti [ 305 K.

Fig. 7 e Axial velocity (m sL1) distribution for Ti [ 305 K.

Fig. 8 e Radial velocity (m sL1) distribution for Ti [ 305 K.

Fig. 9 e Static temperature (K) distribution for Ti [ 305 K.

 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
Fig. 10 e Total temperature (K) distribution for Ti [ 305 K.
Fig. 11 e Distribution of oxygen mass fraction for Ti [ 305 K.
Fig. 12 e (a) Variation of Th (K) with x for Ti [ 115 K.
(b) Variation of Tc (K) with x for Ti [ 115 K.
2125
to ensure that air does not condense inside the tube during the
process of energy separation. The values of the properties of
air used for the simulations at 0.6 MPa and 115 K are given
above. Variation of predicted Th and Tc with x using both ideal
and real gas models is presented and shown respectively in
Fig. 12(a) and (b). Predicted values of both Th and Tc by the real
gas model are found to be little lower than those predicted by
the ideal gas law. The maximum difference between the two
sets of predicted values of Th and Tc is found to be about 3 K.
The overall temperature separation (DT ¼ Th Tc ¼ 30.4 K) at
cryogenic temperature is seen to be much lower than that at
normal atmospheric temperature.
Distributions of the important flow parameters are pre-
sented for the VT operating at 0.6 MPa inlet pressure, 115 K inlet
total temperature and x ¼ 29%. The simulation results using the
real gas model are presented in Figs. 13(a)e16. Fig. 13(a) and (b)
shows the static pressure distribution at the inlet region and
along the length of the VT. The pressure distribution is almost
identical to that obtained for the atmospheric temperature air.
Fig. 14(a) and (b) shows the swirl velocity distribution. The
nature of swirl velocity is similar to that observed at atmo-
spheric temperature. However, the magnitude of swirl velocity
is much lower in the present case. Maximum swirl velocity of
230.2 m s 1 is observed in this case compared to 388 m s 1
obtained in the earlier case. Similar trends are observed for
other velocity components as well. Smaller velocity compo-
nents in cryogenic VT are attributed to the higher density of air
at cryogenic temperature. Fig. 15 shows the total temperature
distribution inside the tube. Overall temperature separation
(DT ¼ Th Tc) observed in this case is 30.4 K, which is nearly
one-third of the DT obtained at atmospheric temperature. This
is attributed to the considerably lower total enthalpy
(106.73 kJ kg 1) of air at 0.6 MPa and 115 K compared to the total
enthalpy of 304.64 kJ kg 1 of air at 0.6 MPa and 305 K. The
enthalpy of air is computed using REFPROP. The higher values
of specific heat at cryogenic temperature (cp varies from
1037.3 J kg 1 K 1 to 1162.4 J kg 1 K 1 in the present case at
cryogenic temperature, whereas cp ¼ 1006.43 J kg 1 K 1 for the
2126 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8

Fig. 13 e (a) Static pressure (Pa) distribution at the inlet region for Ti [ 115 K. (b) Static pressure (Pa) distribution along the
vortex tube length for Ti [ 115 K.

Fig. 14 e (a) Swirl velocity (m sL1) distribution at the inlet region for Ti [ 115 K. (b) Swirl velocity (m sL1) distribution along
the vortex tube length for Ti [ 115 K.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 2 1 1 8 e2 1 2 8
Fig. 15 e Total temperature (K) distribution for Ti [ 115 K.
Fig. 16 e Distribution of oxygen mass fraction for Ti [ 115 K.
atmospheric temperature case) also contribute to the reduction
in the temperature separation.
The oxygen concentration distribution within the VT for
this case is shown in Fig. 16. The difference of oxygen mass
fraction between the hot and the cold outlets at cryogenic
temperature is found to be 8  10 7, which is significantly
lower than the corresponding value at atmospheric temper-
ature. Though the difference in density of oxygen and
nitrogen at cryogenic temperature is somewhat higher than
that at atmospheric temperature, the lower overall tempera-
ture separation at cryogenic temperature reduces the species
separation. Thus, the temperature separation is found to be
the controlling parameter for species separation in a vortex
tube and the species separation can be attributed to Soret
diffusion.
5. Conclusions
In the present study a CFD model is used to investigate the
energy separation and the separation of gas species in the
vortex tube operating with gaseous air at normal atmospheric
temperature and cryogenic temperature. Experiments are
conducted at normal atmospheric temperature and the
computed performance curves (hot and cold outlet tempera-
tures versus hot outlet mass fraction) obtained with both real
gas model and the perfect gas law are compared with the
experimental results to validate the CFD model. In this work
the NIST real gas model is used for the first time to investigate
the operations of a VT. Major observations of this work are
given below.
 The computed hot and cold outlet temperatures using both
perfect gas law and NIST real gas model are found to be very
close to the corresponding experimental data at atmospheric
temperature. However, the outlet temperature predicted by
the real gas model is little closer to the experimental data.
2127
 Distribution of swirl velocity shows that flow inside the VT
is predominantly forced vortex flow. Maximum value of
swirl velocity is observed at the nozzle exit due to expansion
of air through the nozzle.
 The magnitude of temperature separation in the VT oper-
ating with gaseous air at cryogenic temperature is much
lower than that at atmospheric temperature due to the
considerably lower total enthalpy and relatively higher
value of specific heat of air at cryogenic temperature.
 The nature of swirl velocity distribution in a cryogenic VT is
found to be similar to that in an atmospheric temperature
VT. However, magnitude of the swirl velocity is much lower
at cryogenic temperature due to considerably higher value
of air density at cryogenic temperature.
 Separation of air into its main constituents, oxygen and
nitrogen, in the VT is observed to occur at both atmospheric
temperature and cryogenic temperature. However, the
difference in oxygen mass fraction between the hot and the
cold outlets is very small.
 The oxygen mass fraction inside the VT and the lower value
of species separation at cryogenic temperature clearly
indicate that Soret diffusion is the main cause of species
separation in the vortex tube.
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Ahlborn, B., Groves, S., 1997. Secondary flow in a vortex tube.
Fluid Dyn. Res. 21, 73e86.
Aljuwayhel, N.F., Nellis, G.F., Klein, S.A., 2005. Parametric and
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