Re: Ranque-Hilsche Vortex tube

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Mon, 24 Apr 2000, David Strasburger-fac wrote:

> I have a very dedicated and resourceful student (high school senior) who
> wants to build one (his idea, not mine.)  We have looked together for
> references but not turned up much that was helpful.

Somebody sent me this article:

  Chpt 6 "The Wirbelrohr's roar".
  "And yet it moves...strange systems & subtle questions in physics," by
  Mark P. Silverman, Cambridge University Press, 1993

       http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/wirbel.txt

Very interesting that the effect apparantly is an acoustic phenomenon.
Maybe it's akin to the "acoustic refridgerator", or the Rikje tube (A
Rikje tube run backwards!)

A couple of people have mentioned that even cardboard models of the
Hilsch tube, if driven by a vacuum cleaner, will produce one or two
degrees C of temperature difference.

One thing that's shown in modern diagrams, but not in the old SciAm
article, is the shape of the outlet on the hot end.  It should take the
form of an annular slit, while the outlet on the cold end takes the form
of a small central hole.  A diagram I saw of a commercial unit depicted a
solid metal cone shoved into the end of the "hot" pipe, with air escaping
from the narrow slot where the cone almost touches the edge of the pipe.


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William J. Beaty                                  SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
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