CFD Study on the Effects of Nozzle Number on Turbulent Flow and Energy Separation in a Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube

In this paper, the effects of nozzles number on the internal flow in a counter flow Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT) are studied. A 3D structured discretized model of a counter flow multi nozzle RHVT is developed to study the dynamic behaviour of the highly swirling, compressible turbulent flow. Simulations of the turbulent flow are performed using standardk-ε model with 2, 4, 6 and 8 number of nozzles at the computational inlet. Total temperature profiles and total energy separations are studied as a function of nozzle number and total nozzle cross section area. It is observed that cooling effect increases as the nozzle number increases irrespective of total nozzle cross section area.