Experimental investigations of temperature distributions in a vortex tube

The temperature distributions in both the axial and radial direction are the primary characteristics when the energy separation effect of compressible air with strong swirl occurs inside the vortex tube, acquisitions of the temperature distributions inside the vortex tube are the principal and key problem for disclosing the fundamental mechanism underlying the energy separation effect inside the tube. In order to measure the temperature distribution within the vortex tube, the program of measuring temperature using micro-thermocouples is designed according to the features of high swirling motions. The axial and radial gradients of the temperature distribution at the different cold air fraction are obtained by utilizing miniature thermocouple probes to measure the temperature at different axial and radial positions inside the tube. The present studies show that the self-made micro-thermocouples meet the experimental requirements very well and the temperature profiles from experiments are shown to agree accurately with the previous studies, which provide a credible means for further study on the physical mechanisms of the energy separation effect inside the vortex tube.