Abstract. In this paper, energy separation effect in a vortex tube has been investigated using a CFD model. The numerical simulation has been done due to the complex structure of flow. The governing equations have been solved by Fluent code in 2D compressible and turbulent model. Two turbulent models, namely standard kepsilon and spalart allmaras have been used. spalart allmaras turbulent model which is the first equation one, was not so bad in predicting the temperature results. Although the standard k-epsilon model predict the results better in most regions. Different kind of gases has been examined for vortex tube and it concluded that using helium as a refrigerant produce the largest energy separation.

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