The principal mechanism of the vortex phenomenon can be described in the following manner.
An expending gas after passing the tangential nozzle develops into a high speed rotating body or a vortex. The gas in the vortex is cooled because part of its total energy converts into kinetic energy. An angular velocity in the vortex is low at the periphery zone and very high toward the center zone. Friction between the central and periphery zones reduces all the gas to the same angular velocity as in a solid body. This causes the inner layers to slow down and the outer layers to speed up. As a result, the inner layers lose part of their kinetic energy and their total temperature decreases. The periphery layers receive the energy from the internal layers. This energy converts to heat through friction on the vortex tube's walls.
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