The Effects of Orifice Nozzle Number on Heating and Cooling Performance of Vortex Tubes: An Experimental Study

Abstract

In this study, the effects of the orifice nozzle number and the inlet pressure on the heating and cooling performance of the counter flow type vortex tube is investigated experimentally. The orifices are produced using the polyamide plastic material. Five orifices with 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 nozzles are manufactured. In this study, air is used as a fluid. In the experiments, for each of the orifices, inlet pressures were adjusted from 150 kPa to 700 kPa with 50 kPa increments and the energy separation was investigated. During the experiments, cold mass fraction of the vortex tube that L/D ratio is 15, is held constant at 0.5. At the end of the experimental study, it is noted that the temperature gradient between the cold and hot fluid is decreased with increasing of the orifice nozzle number.