Temperature, Pressure and Velocity measurements on the Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube

Temperatures, pressures and velocities were measured in a Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. Results show that the cooling power is larger than the heating power due to a heat loss to the surroundings. This heat loss became the more dominant thermodynamic process at large cold fractions (the ratio of cold mass flow over total mass flow). The velocities were obtained by means of Laser Doppler Anemometry. By this method, the three dimensional velocities of the gas and their standard deviations in the vortex tube are revealed by an non-intrusive measurement method. The turbulent fluctuations, characterized by the standard deviations, show that the turbulence is isotropic in the core region of the vortex tube.