Effect of operating conditions, physical size and fluid characteristics on the gas separation performance of a Linderstrom-Lang vortex tube

Abstract Linderstrom-Lang has reported that partial separation of the components of a gas mixture occurs when it is passed through a particular type of vortex tube. The present work confirms this effect and, using several different gas mixtures and several different sizes of tube, shows that there is a critical inlet Reynolds number for maximum separation by this device. A correlation is derived which satisfactorily predicts the performance over a wide range of gas parameters and applied pressures.