The temperature separation effects of vortex tubes have been widely studied
in open systems, using mainly air or N2as the working fluid. When a vortex
tube is employed in a closed thermal system, more fluid choices, such as
refrigerants, could be considered. Different to air, refrigerants have quite
varied thermal-physical properties, and research of the thermal-physical
properties? influence on the temperature separation effect is rather limited.
Based on CFD simulated temperature separation effect of eight refrigerants
(R152a, R290, R134a, R600a, R143a, R245fa, R227ea and R218), this study
attempts to gain a better insight into how their properties could be related
to compare their temperature separation performance. The analysis shows for
small mass flow ratios at the cold end, the cooling effect can be assessed
by the relative values of their isentropic expansion exponent. The results
also suggest that a large thermal diffusivity and kinematic viscosity, and a
small vapour density and Joule-Thomson (J-T) coefficient would lead to
better heating effects.