Experimental and Numerical Investigation of a Miniature Additively Manufactured Vortex Tube
- School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Sloan Hall, Spokane St., Pullman, WA 99164
Abstract Ranque–Hilsch vortex tubes are simple devices that can produce a cooling effect using compressed air. A key advantage of vortex tubes is the lack of moving solid parts; however, their efficiencies are relatively low. The present study focuses on the development of a miniature variable-diameter tube using additive manufacturing. A metal-based 3D printing technique was utilized to fabricate this vortex tube monolithically. Computational fluid dynamics simulations employing software star-ccm+ with a compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approach and the elliptic-blending lag k-epsilon turbulence model have been applied to model thermofluid processes inside the vortex tube, to good agreement with the experiment. A temperature decrease of 13.3 °C and a cooling power of approximately 4 W were experimentally achieved with a pressure ratio of 4 in the air at normal conditions. This result shows promise for the goal of utilizing additive manufacturing to design and build complex-geometry vortex tubes intended for use with cryogenic fluids.
- Research Organization:
- Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0008429
- OSTI ID:
- 1848786
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, Vol. 13, Issue 2; ISSN 1948-5085
- Publisher:
- ASME
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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