Unsteady, viscous, circular flow Part 3. Application to the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube

Abstract : A new explanation of the vortex tube is presented. The proposed model leads to an equivalent unsteady-flow analysis for the development of the flow in the vortex tube. Using this analysis, radial distributions of velocity and temperature can now be calculated at successive axial positions in the tube. The qualitative similarity in the development of the calculated and experimental sets of profiles with axial position is considered especially significant. A theory of vortex tube performance based upon an idealized three-dimensional flow pattern for the vortex tube is derived. Some experiments relating the idealized vortex tube analyzed to previous vortex tube measurements are described. (Author)