Various methods had been taken for the flow field studies, among them, qualitative visualizations and probe intrusive measurements have a long history and had been adopted since last 50s, while laser non-intrusive measurements and numerical simulations are the emerging methods, especially the former. Nowadays, more and more researchers have realized there are specific and regular flow structures in the strong turbulence of vortex tube, and the flow structures have great significance on understanding the energy separation process and performance. However, there still did not exist a review on the flow structure studies. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical review and discussion on the current studying methods, findings and differences on the flow structures in vortex tube. In addition, future scopes were proposed on the experimentally and theoretically verification of these flow structures and their effects on the energy separation process and performance.

A critical review on the flow structure studies of Ranque–Hilsch vortex tubes

Review of predictive models for the design of counterflow vortex tubes working with perfect gas

In order to get the internal parameters of a vortex tube, a large-scale vortex tube was designed and an experimental device was built. A five-hole probe and thermocouples were used to obtain the three-dimensional velocities, the static pressure, static temperature and total temperature distributions inside the vortex tube. Four different cold mass fraction conditions (0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) were chosen and the impacts on the internal parameters of the vortex tube were discussed. Different from the traditional view, the tangential velocity was considered to be the steady Burgers vortex form. A reverse flow boundary was found, and the location of which was changed at different operation conditions and axial positions. Further, it was found that the lowest static temperature existed near the nozzle outlet, and a new static temperature difference distribution law was firstly proposed experimentally.

Experimental study of the impacts of cold mass fraction on internal parameters of a vortex tube

Flow and heat transfer in swirl tubes — A review

Numerical investigation on heat transfer performance and flow characteristics in a roughened vortex chamber

https://escholarship.org/content/qt7q07f163/qt7q07f163.pdf?t=pfyw54

B. Kobiela

Papers

A computational and experimental study of thermal energy separation by swirl