Vortex tube - Definition and Overview

The vortex tube , also known as the Hilsch-Ranque vortex tube, is a heat pump with no moving parts. Pressurized gas is injected into a specially designed chamber and accelerated to a high rate of rotation (over 1,000,000 rpm). The gas is split into two streams, one giving kinetic energy to the other, and resulting in separate flows of hot and cold gases.

The vortex tube was invented in 1930 by French physicist Georges J. Ranque. German physicist Rudolf Hilsch improved the design and published a widely read paper in 1945 on the device.

Vortex tubes have lower efficiency than traditional air conditioning equipment. They are commonly used for inexpensive spot cooling, when compressed air is available. Commercial models are designed for industrial applications to produce a temperature drop of about 80 degrees F.

Another application is for Uranium enrichment. South Africa used vortex tubes in their Helikon Vortex Separation method.

References

• Van Ness, H.C. Understanding Thermodynamics, New York: Dover, 1969, starting on page 53. A discussion of the vortex tube in terms of conventional thermodynamics, which is able to explain it completely.
• Silverman, Mark P. And Yet it Moves: Strange Systems and Subtle Questions in Physics, Cambridge, 1993, Chapter 6

External links

• G. J. Ranque's U.S. Patent (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F1952281)