Author(s)

D. Saha, J. C. H. Zeegers, J. G. M. Kuerten

Abstract

We have investigated the efficiency of the Ranque–Hilsch Vortex Tube (RHVT) to separate water droplets from nearly saturated humidified N₂ gas. With respect to the injected water (1% in mass fraction), water vapour enrichment around 15% is found at the hot exit of the RHVT where the temperature is higher than at the inlet. Measurement at the cold exit where the temperature is lower than the inlet shows an oversaturated condition, i.e., the estimated relative humidity is ~200%. Therefore, we measured the separation efficiency by removing the droplets as condensate from the cold side. We found that the water separation efficiency at the cold side with respect to total amount of water injected is ~10% and with respect to the amount of water present at the cold side flow is ~20% respectively, for cold fractions 0.3–0.7. The condensate separation efficiency increases up to 40% by taking into account of the maximum condensable water from the oversaturated cold stream.

Keywords

Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube, droplet separation