Hilsch Tube for Cabin Temp control...

EridanMan wrote:
Hey Guys-

Has anyone ever attempted to install a Hilsch Tube (Vortex Tube) in an
aircraft for environmental controls?

The setup I see would be very light, a 3 foot long PVC vortex tube (no
more than 5 lbs) with a small exhaust turbocharger force-feeding it.
Yes the Hilsch tube is not a particularly efficiant cooling mechanism,
but exaust-gas pressure is essentially 'wasted energy' anyways.

But, it's not really.
Adding extra back pressure to the engine decreases its efficiency.

And small, unpressurized airplanes don't need cooling. The air outside
is plenty cold. For heat, there's lots to be had from the exhaust or
oil with a simple heat exchanger.

In a pressurized airplane, I don't think the vortex tube would work. I
don't think you can exhaust the cold side into the cabin and the hot
side overboard, so I think you're back to conventional AC.

Yeah... You have a point about how useful it might be (especially for a
Bay area pilot such as myself)...

Although - The tube flow is pressurized, so there's no reason that a
hirsch tube setup could be used as the preassurization mechanism for an
aircraft (assuming the structure can handle it... big assumption)...
The only question would be could you maintain a comfortable balance of
warm and cold air...

I dunno... Probably more effort than its worth, i'll agree, but its
still fun to think about.

The flow tube is pressurized, but I'll bet if the cold side exit is at
a higher pressure than the hot side exit, the pressurized air inside
the cabin will just join the pressurized turbocomressed air in exiting
to the outside atmosphere.

The very point of the Turbo is that a well designed turbine (matched to
the expected flow) do not significantly increase backpreassure, but
does harvest excess pressure energy.

This is the fundamental difference between Turbocharging and
Supercharging.