• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.92-99
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• 2008

The "energy separation phenomenon" through a vortex tube has been a long-standing mechanical engineering problem whose operational principle is not yet known. In order to find the operational principle of the vortex tube, CFD analysis of the flow field in the vortex tube has been carried out. It was found that the energy separation mechanism in the vortex tube consists of basically two major thermodynamic-fluid mechanical processes. One is the isentropic expansion process at the inlet nozzle, during which the gas temperature is nearly isentropically cooled. Second process is the viscous dissipation heating due to the high level of turbulence in both flow passages toward cold gas exit as well as the hot gas exit of the vortex tube. Since the amount of such a viscous heating is different between the two passages, the gas temperature at the cold exit is much lower than that at the hot exit.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2010

Vortex tube is the device that can separate small particles from the compressed gas, as well as compressed gas into hot and cold flow. Due to energy separation ability, a vortex tube can substitute for an EGR cooler of the automotive engine. In this study, experimental approach has been performed to analyze the energy separation characteristics of the vortex tube. Energy separation characteristics of the vortex tube has been tested for supply pressure, cold-out pressure, and hot-out pressure. As increasing supply pressure, energy separation effect increased. Maximum temperature exists about 0.85 of the cold-out-flow-ratio, and minimum exists about 0.35. Hot-out temperature of the vortex tube is affected by the hot-out and cold-out pressure. However, for the given conditions, cold-out temperature is independent of exit pressure change. The results from this study can be used for the basic design parameter of the EGR cooler substitute of an automotive engine.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2011.12b
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• pp.600-603
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• 2011

볼텍스 튜브는 고압의 가스를 이용하여 고온 가스와 저온 가스로 에너지를 분리하거나 입자상 물질의 분리에 사용 할 수 있는 장치이다. 본 연구에서는 컨버징튜브($D_{in}$=10mm, $D_{out}$=6mm)와 다이버징튜브($D_{in}$=6mm, $D_{out}$=10mm)의 성능을 비교, 분석하였다. 기존에 제작된 베이스튜브(D=6, 10mm)를 기준으로 하여 컨버징 튜브와 다이버징 튜브의 에너지분리 특성 실험을 수행하였다. 결과적으로 튜브의 입구직경보다 출구직경이 커지는 다이버징 튜브에서 우수한 성능을 확인 할 수 있었다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2009

An object of this study is to confirm application characteristics of the vortex tube apparatus for substitution of the intercooler in a common-rail diesel engine. The turbo pressure, the intake air mass flow rate and the charging air cooling ratio of the intercooler were measured in an experimental engine. The vortex tube apparatus was made after confirmation of the geometric phenomena in fundamental experiments. The vortex tube designed with fundamental data was applied to a conventional common-rail diesel engine instead of the intercooler. Its application characteristics, engine performances and emissions were investigated. From this experimental results, we suggested the vortex tube can be applied to a conventional common-rail diesel engine throughout extra complement. We can also expect the higher cooling effect, if we consider the application of the vortex tube in supercharging diesel engine without the intercooler.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2016

In this paper, a numerical analysis was performed to investigate the effect of the pitch angle of a helical nozzle on the performance characteristics of a vortex tube. Three-dimensional numerical simulation has been performed with standard $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model by using FLUENT 13.0. The effect of the pitch angle of helical nozzle was described in term of ${\beta}$. A CFD analysis was performed on ${\beta}=0^{\circ}$, $5^{\circ}$, $10^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$. In order to realize the influence of ${\beta}$ on performances of the vortex tube. Computation results were expressed by the ${\beta}-{\Delta}T_{h,c}$ graph and radial profiles of axial velocity and swirl velocity. The results showed that ${\beta}$ which improves energy separation capacity of vortex tube was $5^{\circ}$ at ${\alpha}=0.33$, 0.5 and $10^{\circ}$ at ${\alpha}=0.33$. Besides, It was confirmed that the results were closely related to axial velocity and swirl velocity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.172-178
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• 2008

An object of this study is to confirm performance characteristics of the vortex tube apparatus for substitution of the intercooler in a common-rail diesel engine. The turbo pressure, the intake air flow rate and the ${\Delta}T_c$ decrease ratio of the intercooler were measured in a experimental engine. The vortex tube apparatus was made after confirmation of the geometric phenomena in fundamental experiments. To investigate energy separation characteristics of the vortex tube, the measured turbo pressure was applied to the vortex tube inlet and the ${\Delta}T_c$ decrease ratio was compared with one of the intercooler in the cold air mass flow ratio similar to the intake air flow rate of the experimental engine. From the results, we found that the energy separation ratio is increased according to of the inlet pressure and the ${\Delta}T_c$ decrease ratio of the vortex tube apparatus is higher than one of the intercooler at low engine speed and engine load of medium and low.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.166-171
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• 2016

Electric vehicle ownership is expanding for two reasons: its technology features have enhanced fuel economy, and the number of vehicle emissions regulations is increasing. Battery performance has a large influence on the capability of electric vehicles, and even though battery thermal management has been actively researched, specific technological improvements to battery performance are not being presented. For instance, many industrial applications utilize vortex tubes as components for refrigeration machines because of their numerous intrinsic benefits. If electric vehicles incorporate vortex tubes for battery cooling, performance and efficiency advancements are possible. This study uses a counter-flow vortex tube to investigate its temperature separation characteristics, based on the back pressure of the cold air exit and the difference between the inlet and back pressures. The experiment uses a vortex tube with the following parameters: six nozzle holes, a 20 mm inner vortex diameter (D), a 14D tube length, a 0.7D cold exit orifice diameter, and a nozzle area ratio of 0.142. The measurements prove that the temperature difference between the hot air and cold air decreased because of the flow resistance of the hot air and the backflow phenomenon at the cold air exit. The flow resistance causes the temperature difference to decrease, and the back pressure of the cold air exit influences the flow resistance. The results show that the back pressure significantly influences the efficiency of temperature separation.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.594-600
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• 2007

Rapid mold heating has been recent issue to enable the injection molding of thin-walled parts or micro/nano structures. Induction heating is an efficient way to heat a conductive workpiece by means of high-frequency electric current caused by electromagnetic induction. Because the induction heating is a convenient and efficient way of indirect heating, it has various applications such as heat treatment, brazing, welding, melting, and mold heating. The present study covers an experimental investigation on the rapid heating using the induction heating and rapid cooling using a vortex tube in order to eliminate an excessive cycle time increase. Experiments are performed in the case of a steel cup mold core with various heating and cooling conditions. Temperature is measured during heating and cooling time, from which appropriate mold heating and cooling conditions can be obtained.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.93-98
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• 2010

An object of this study is to confirm the opening amount of the throttle valve that is begun the temperature separation of vortex tube for various engine speed and load condition in a common rail diesel engine. The vortex tube located at downstream of the exhaust manifold is a device separating the incoming exhaust gas to hot and cold stream. To find optimum separation efficiency of vortex tube, the opening amount of throttle valve has been investigated for various engine speed and load conditions. Engine speed was found that the influence of engine speed was dominant compared with that of engine load. As engine speed was increased, the throttle opening amount starting temperature separation was reduced.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.7-13
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• 2015

Vortex tube is a thermal static device that separates compressed air into hot and cold streams. In general, the cooling efficiency of vortex tubes is lower than that of traditional air conditioning equipment and vortex tubes are mainly used for industrial spot cooling applications because of their quick responses. In this study, conical frustums are employed in the nozzle chamber to improve the cooling performance. Conical frustums can be used to decrease the ineffective mass fraction that directly passes through the cold exit without energy separation. The shape optimization of conical frustums has been performed using full factorial design. It is found that the height of frustums has the largest main effects on the cooling performance. Computational results show that the cooling performance can be increased by about 10% within the considered range of the design parameters. This is because the ineffective mass fraction toward the cold exit is decreased by about 20%.