scholarly journals An Investigation of a Micro-Scale Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube

Author(s):  
Amar F. Hamoudi ◽  
Amir Fartaj ◽  
Gary W. Rankin

The results of an experimental investigation of the energy separation performance of a micro-scale Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube are presented in this paper. The micro-scale vortex tube is 2 mm in diameter and constructed using a layered technique from multiple pieces of Plexiglas and aluminum. Four inlet slots, symmetrically located around the tube, form the vortex. The hydraulic diameter of each inlet slot and the orifice diameter for the cold exit are 229 and 800 microns respectively. The working fluid is low pressure, non-dehumidified compressed air at room temperature. The rate of the hot gas flow is varied by means of a control valve to achieve different values of cold mass fraction. The mass flow rates, temperatures and pressures of the supply and outlet flows are measured and the performance of the device presented. The supply channel Reynolds number is varied over a considerable range which extends into the laminar regime in order to determine the operating conditions for cooling. An increase in dimensionless temperature is found in both the cold and hot outlets as supply nozzle Reynolds number increases from zero. Maximum values occur at a Reynolds number of approximately 500 and the cold flow dimensionless temperature becomes negative at about 2500. Although the optimum cold mass ratio is higher than the conventional tubes, the effect on performance of tube length and cold exit diameter is similar to the conventional devices.

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1079-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahyar Kargaran ◽  
A. Arabkoohsar ◽  
S.J. Hagighat-Hosini ◽  
V. Farzaneh-Kord ◽  
Mahmood Farzaneh-Gord

Vortex tube is a simple device without a moving part which is capable of separating hot and cold gas streams from a higher pressure inlet gas stream. The mechanism of energy separation has been investigated by several scientists and second law approach has emerged as an important tool for optimizing the vortex tube performance. Here, a thermodynamic model has been used to investigate vortex tube energy separation. Further, a method has been proposed for optimizing the vortex tube based on the rate of entropy generation obtained from experiments. Also, an experimental study has been carried out to investigate the effects of the hot tube length and cold orifice diameter on entropy generation within a vortex tube with natural gas as working fluid. A comparison has been made between air and natural gas as working fluids. The results show that the longest tube generates lowest entropy for NG. For air, it is middle tube which generates lowest entropy. Integration of entropy generation for all available cold mass fractions unveiled that an optimized value for hot tube length and cold orifice diameter is exist.


2008 ◽  
Vol 130 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. F. Hamoudi ◽  
A. Fartaj ◽  
G. W. Rankin

The results of an experimental investigation of the energy separation performance of a microscale Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube are presented. The supply channel Reynolds number of a microscale Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube is varied over a considerable range, which extends into the laminar flow regime in order to determine the minimum conditions for cooling. Experiments are conducted for a fixed geometry and control valve setting. At low Reynolds numbers based on the inlet tube hydraulic diameter and average velocity, the results exhibit an increase in dimensionless temperature in both the hot and cold outlets as the Reynolds number is increased from zero, reaching maximum values below 500 and 1000, respectively. The hot outlet dimensionless temperature decreases after reaching its maximum and achieves a minimum value at a Reynolds number below 1500. It then increases steadily with further increases in Reynolds number. The cold outlet dimensionless temperature decreases steadily after the maximum to become negative at a Reynolds number of approximately 1800. This implies that the cooling effect occurs at Reynolds numbers consistent with turbulent flow. The performance characteristics of the microscale vortex tube operating at higher inlet pressures of 200kPa, 300kPa, and 400kPa with an average inlet temperature of 293.6K are also presented for cold air mass ratio values over the range of 0.05–0.95. An increase in the inlet pressure causes the values of the dimensionless cold temperature difference to increase over the whole range of the cold air mass fraction. An unstable operation is observed at a length to diameter ratio of approximately 10, causing radial mixing between the cold and hot flow streams and a dramatic change in the cold mass flow fraction plot.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1984
Author(s):  
Ramin Moradi ◽  
Emanuele Habib ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Luca Cioccolanti

Organic Rankine cycle (ORC) systems are some of the most suitable technologies to produce electricity from low-temperature waste heat. In this study, a non-regenerative, micro-scale ORC system was tested in off-design conditions using R134a as the working fluid. The experimental data were then used to tune the semi-empirical models of the main components of the system. Eventually, the models were used in a component-oriented system solver to map the system electric performance at varying operating conditions. The analysis highlighted the non-negligible impact of the plunger pump on the system performance Indeed, the experimental results showed that the low pump efficiency in the investigated operating range can lead to negative net electric power in some working conditions. For most data points, the expander and the pump isentropic efficiencies are found in the approximate ranges of 35% to 55% and 17% to 34%, respectively. Furthermore, the maximum net electric power was about 200 W with a net electric efficiency of about 1.2%, thus also stressing the importance of a proper selection of the pump for waste heat recovery applications.


Author(s):  
Josua P. Meyer ◽  
Leon Liebenberg ◽  
Jonathan A. Olivier

Heat exchangers are usually designed in such a way that they do not operate in the transition region. This is usually due to a lack of information in this region. However, due to design constraints, energy efficiency requirements or change of operating conditions, heat exchangers are often forced to operate in this region. It is also well known that entrance disturbances influence where transition occurs. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental heat transfer and pressure drop data in the transition region for fully developed and developing flows inside smooth tubes using water as the working fluid. The use of different inlet disturbances were used to investigate its effect on transition. A tube-in-tube heat exchanger was used to perform the experiments, which ranged in Reynolds numbers from 1 000 to 20 000, with Prandtl numbers being between 4 and 6 while Grashof numbers were in the order of 105. Results showed that the type of inlet disturbance could delay transition to a Reynolds number as high as 7 000, while other inlets expedited it, confirming results of others. For heat transfer, though, it was found that transition was independent of the inlet disturbance and all commenced at the same Reynolds number, 2 000–3 000, which was attributed to secondary flow effects.


Author(s):  
Viral K. Patel ◽  
Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi

Micro-scale two-phase flow heat transport involves specialized devices that are used to remove large amounts of heat from small surface areas. They operate by circulating a working fluid through a heated space which causes phase change from liquid to vapor. During this process, a significant amount of heat is transported away from the heat source. Micro-scale heat transport devices are compact in size and the heat transfer coefficient can be orders of magnitude higher than in macro-scale for similar operating conditions. Thus, it is of interest to develop such devices for cooling of next-generation electronics and other applications with extremely large heat fluxes. The heat transport device presented in this paper is driven by electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping. In EHD conduction pumping, when an electric field is applied to a dielectric liquid, flow is induced. The pump is installed in a two-phase flow loop and has a circular 1 mm diameter cross section with electrode spacing on the order of 120 μm. It acts to circulate the fluid in the loop and has a simple yet robust, non-mechanical design. Results from two-phase flow experiments show that it is easily controlled and such electrically driven pumps can effectively be used in heat transport systems.


2022 ◽  
Vol 961 (1) ◽  
pp. 012010
Author(s):  
Ali M Aljelawy ◽  
Amer M Aldabbagh ◽  
Falah F Hatem

Abstract One of the most recently important heat exchangers is the Printed circuit heat exchanger especially in the nuclear power plant and aerospace applications due to its very compact geometry and small print foot. This paper presents a 3D numerical investigation on the thermo-hydraulic performance of PCHE with new non-uniform channel design configuration. The new channel design is a rectangular cross section with repeated converging diverging sections or periodic diamond shape. The influence of three design parameters on the heat exchanger performance was studied and optimized, pitch length (p), length ratio (β) and the converging diverging angle (α). The computational models investigated in this study based on the operating conditions of the intermediate heat exchanger of very high temperature gas cooled reactor with helium as the working fluid under operating pressure of 3Mpa and inlet temperature of 800 K. The Reynolds number varied from 200 to 2000. Different Pitch lengths were used (1.59, 3.18, 6.36, and 12.73) mm, and different C-D angle (0, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9, 10.5 and 12) and also different length ratios were used (0.2, 0.25 and 0.333). Three performance parameters were studied the Nusselt number, friction factor and the overall performance evaluation factor. Results show that the thermal performance enhanced with decreasing the pitch length and with increasing C-D angle and it was shown that this enhancement was found only at high Reynolds number above 1400. The best performance obtained at p=3.18, α=6 and β=0.25 based on the overall evaluation performance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 465-466 ◽  
pp. 515-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurhasanah Ismail ◽  
Wisnoe Wirachman ◽  
Muhammad Fairuz Remeli

In this experiment, the cold mass fraction, cold temperature difference and isentropic efficiency of Ranque-Hilsch Vortex Tube were investigated and measured. Three different inlet pressures (absolute) (296633 Pa, 394699.5 Pa and 492766 Pa) and 2 type of orifice diameter (4 mm and 5 mm) were used. 5 mm orifice gives higher value of cold mass fraction (μc = 0.7067) compare to 4 mm orifice (μc = 0.3264). It is also no significant effect in cold mass fraction by changing three difference inlet pressures. 4 mm orifice has higher cold temperature difference (ΔTc = 18°C) compare to 5 mm orifice (ΔTc = 8°C) at highest inlet pressure (492766 Pa) that were used. 4 mm orifice has higher isentropic efficiency (ηisen=0.17545) compare to 5 mm orifice (ηisen=0.0834). For both orifices, the highest isentropic efficiency was obtained when the lowest inlet pressure (296633 Pa) were applied.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Borup ◽  
Danyang Fan ◽  
Christopher J. Elkins ◽  
John K. Eaton

Discrete hole film cooling is widely employed to protect turbine blades and vanes from hot combustion gases entering the high-pressure turbine stage. Accurate prediction of the heat transfer near film cooling holes is critical, and high-fidelity experimental data sets are needed for validation of new computational models. Relatively few studies have examined the effects of periodic main flow unsteadiness resulting from the interaction of turbine blades and vanes, with a particular lack of data for shaped hole configurations. Periodic unsteadiness was generated in the main flow over a laidback, fan-shaped cooling hole at a Strouhal number (St = fD/U) of 0.014 by an airfoil oscillating in pitch. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with water as the working fluid was used to obtain full-field, phase-resolved velocity and scalar concentration data. Operating conditions consisted of a hole Reynolds number of 2900, channel Reynolds number of 25, 000, and blowing ratio of unity. Both mean and phase-resolved data are compared to the previous measurements for the same hole geometry with steady main flow. Under unsteady freestream conditions, the flow separation pattern inside the hole was observed to change from an asymmetric separation bubble to two symmetric bubbles. The periodic unsteadiness was characterized by alternating periods of slow main flow, which allowed the coolant to penetrate into the freestream along the centerplane, and fast, hole-impinging main flow, which deflected coolant toward the laidback wall and caused ejection of coolant from the hole away from the centerplane. Mean adiabatic surface effectiveness was reduced up to 23% inside the hole, while mean laterally averaged effectiveness outside the hole fell 28–36% over the entire measurement domain. A brief comparison to a round jet with and without unsteadiness is included; for the round jet, no disturbance was observed inside the hole, and some fluctuations directed coolant toward the wall, which increased mean film cooling effectiveness. The combined velocity and concentration data for both cases are suitable for quantitative validation of computational fluid dynamics predictions for film cooling flows with periodic freestream unsteadiness.


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