hilljackofdenile

Hey, i was just wondering if you guys have heard of a vortex tube. if not you can find info on it here: http://www.newmantools.com/vortex.htm

but basically what it does is takes compressed air and splits it into a hot and cold stream with no moving parts! I was wondering if anyone had ever thought about building a modification of this device for use on a turbo or supercharger. It would get rid of the need for an intercooler. But then again, it may make the air too cold, im not sure how cold too cold is for the intake air though. And it may be less efficient, just a thought.

ATOMonkey

This is the first time I've seen this idea. Very neat. However, from what I've learned about it, the compressed air in these applications is between 80 and 100 psig and 70*F. The outcoming air is at atmospheric pressure (no boost). Also they don't flow much air at all. Some air is also discharged as waste. That means that the compressor would have to be larger than nominal creating a larger parasitic loss.

Since an intercooler uses airflow generated by a car's speed it is recovering lost energy. A car only boosts at high pressure under a load which is what happens driving down the road. That is why an intercooler is so effective. The only advantages to this system would be that it would cool the charge air at zero vehicle speeds, and could be placed anywhere in the vehicle. It could be an idea that might be adopted into diesel gen sets, or vehicles with very limited space.

Scott_92RS

Wouldnt it be possible to make an air conditioner out of this somehow? It seems to me like it would be possible, and all you would be pumping with the compressor would be air, instead of freon....

wwnf

iTrader: (1)

I looked into vortex tubes for automobile applications but the amount of input that you would need to get the volume of output that you would need is huge. You would need an air compressor the size of your car or larger.

B4Ctom1

the first time I ever saw this device was on a choke tester from snap-on with a hot side and cool side outlet. it uses basic HVAC principles of pressure differential to generate hot/cold. It just uses a great volume of air to do it (power costly).