An efficiency enhancement of a vortex cooling using a flowing water at a hot tube jacket

Abstract

An energy separation effect inside the vortex tube is resulted in a high temperature stream at peripheral region and a low temperature stream in the centre region. The performance of a vortex cooling system can be enhanced if the rate of heat transfer from the central region to the peripheral region of the inside vortex tube is greater. To prove this assumption, the use of a flowing water on a hot tube surface is investigated. In this study, a tube jacket and the circular plate fins are designed, constructed and integrated at the outer surface of a hot tube which locates at the opposite side of the cold exit. A tube jacket is fabricated from a PVC pipe with a diameter of 54 mm and a length of 98 mm. A circular plate fin made of aluminium with diameter of 41 mm. The test parameters are an inlet air pressure from 1.5 to 3 bar and the cold air mass fraction between 0 and 1. Furthermore, a water flow rate is varied between 0.085 and 0.5 litre/min. The cooling capacity of the vortex cooling system with a tube jacket and without is compared. The experimental results show that the use of the flowing water at the hot tube jacket has increased the cooling capacity of the system by 25 percent and an isentropic efficiency of the system by 18 percent.

Keywords: Air refrigerant,Efficiency enhancement,Vortex cooling