Re: Ranque-Hilsche Vortex tube

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 18:51 4/24/00 -0400, Robert Cohen wrote:
> I know nothing about the R-H Vortex tube but is it similar to a tornado
> vortex?  In a tornado, I believe the air in the center of the vortex is
> cooler due to expansion (lowest pressure in center to provide centripetal
> force).  I seem to recall that this is why the "cloud" extends down into
> the tornado (i.e., the temperature in the center has decreased down to the
> dewpoint). Can anyone confirm or deny this idea?
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> | Robert Cohen

The immortal Professor Stong included the Hilsch tube in his
compendium of home experiments, "The Amateur Scientist"
ISBN 0-671-20833-0  1960, Fireside/Simon & Schuster

Hilsch's graph shown there, shows he produced the lowest cold
tube temperature when the cold air mass rate was limited to
 between 0.2 and 0.4 of the total mass flow for his particular tubes.
 That was -40degC at 10 atm input pressure.

The model drawn by Roger Hayward for Stong was capable of +38degC
and -56degC when optimized for balanced performance, or 175degC
when optimized for hot air.
The cold core is at lower pressure than the hot periphery.

There is now one or more commercial product available, which
is said to show an important product improvement - its relative
quietness, as compared with the Hilsch prototype. People suggest
it's due to the streamlined venturi replacing the sharp edged washer
of the former model.





brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK