Abstract:
Based on the prepared counterflow vortex tube model with four inlets, the effect of the length of the vortex tube channel on the generation of cold and hot air is investigated. In the simulation were used standard equations of gas dynamics, which include the equations of continuity, conservation of momentum, total energy, and the state of an ideal gas. To consider turbulent effects was chosen a $k - \varepsilon$ turbulence model. Computational experiments were carried out in the OpenFOAM software using the sonicFoam solver. The prepared grid allowed modeling vortex tubes with the main channel length varying from 20 to 70 cm. All calculations were carried out under the same boundary conditions with constant pressure at the inlets and atmospheric pressure at the hot and cold outlets. The constructed model adequately reproduces the two-vortex structure of the air flow in the vortex tube. To obtain and process the results were used OpenFOAM utilities and a script implementing the algorithm for averaging the values at the tube outlets written in Python. The results were obtained on the temperatures and mass flow rates of air in cold and hot outlets of the vortex tube depending on the length of the device. According to the analysis of the obtained data, it was shown that increasing the length of the channel of the vortex tube significantly increases the production of cold air with a certain increase in its temperature. An increase in the temperature of the produced hot air with an increase in the length of the vortex tube was also noted.
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