Numerical investigation of the nozzle number on the performance of conical vortex tube

A three dimensional computational fluid dynamic is used to analyze the mechanisms of flow inside a vortex tube. The K- ω SST turbulence model was applied to predict the performance and turbulent flow behavior inside the tube. The performance is related to the nozzle number. Five different nozzles as two, three, four, five and six were tested. The geometry of vortex tube is similar to the tube used by Skye et al in his experiment. This tube is composed by circumferential inlet slots as well as axial cold and hot outlet. The performance curves of the temperature separation versus cold outlet mass fraction were calculated and compared with experimental results of Mohanty et al.