Study on the Temperature Separation Phenomenon in a Vortex Chamber

A vortex chamber is a simple device that separates compressed gas into a high-temperature stream and a low-temperature stream. It is increasing in popularity as a next-generation heat exchanger, but the flow physics associated with it is not yet well understood. In the present study, both experimental and numerical analyses were performed to investigate the temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber. Static pressures and temperatures were measured using high-sensitivity pressure transducers and thermocouples, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics was applied to simulate 3D unsteady compressible flows. The simulation results showed that the temperature separation is strongly dependent on the diameter of the vortex chamber and the supply pressure at the inlet ports, where the latter is closely related to the viscous work. The previous concept of a pressure gradient wave may not be a reasoning for temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber.