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Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)

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Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by captinjoehenry   » Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:19 pm

captinjoehenry
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Hi I was just reading about vortex tubes when I realized that Charis can make them right now as they have air compressors so they could set these up on their new steam ships or major facilities and have the ability to refrigerate stuff right now! They could also set up some AC with these. I don't know that much about them so what do you lot think about it?

Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by Peppero   » Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:58 pm

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Quick google.
First commercial flop refrigeration was 1840
First commercial success was US civil war because
the south was cut off from yankee ice.
So seems like the tech is in the right time period.
The reinvention of steam engines give them the power and
that is probably the limiting factor.

Pneumatic tools in an iron working plant.
No, the workers would Never notice the cool air coming from the tools exhaust.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by Expert snuggler   » Wed Dec 09, 2015 7:41 pm

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Best of all, it's easy to consider it to be wind power.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by evilauthor   » Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:41 pm

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Patyr Wylsynn actually discusses refrigeration at one point (I forget with who), but ultimately decides that he has enough doctrinal battles on his plate and doesn't want to add refrigeration to it.

Although given what happens to an object when you rapidly decrease the air pressure inside a container (and that the Delthak factories are now using lots of pneumatic equipment), it wouldn't surprise me if some smart engineer noticed the effect and just straight out reinvents refrigeration with no Inner Circle input.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by Expert snuggler   » Wed Dec 09, 2015 11:29 pm

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Wait. Charis has a big fishing industry? Refrigeration will be a huge deal for them.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by evilauthor   » Thu Dec 10, 2015 2:58 am

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Expert snuggler wrote:Wait. Charis has a big fishing industry? Refrigeration will be a huge deal for them.


Of course Charis has a big fishing industry. They were a maritime kingdom long before the current war started.

And HFQ mentions that Charisian cuisine is heavy on the seafood. This was in comparison to Corisandian food which features a more varied diet due to Corisande having more farms despite having a smaller population than Old Charis.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by n7axw   » Thu Dec 10, 2015 7:21 pm

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evilauthor wrote:
Expert snuggler wrote:Wait. Charis has a big fishing industry? Refrigeration will be a huge deal for them.


Of course Charis has a big fishing industry. They were a maritime kingdom long before the current war started.

And HFQ mentions that Charisian cuisine is heavy on the seafood. This was in comparison to Corisandian food which features a more varied diet due to Corisande having more farms despite having a smaller population than Old Charis.


Corisande had a larger population on a smaller land area. But more of Corisande's population lived inland on farms while Charis' population was on the coast around Howell Bay. I have the impression that Charis' inland is a lot rougher terrain than Corisande's.

Don

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When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: Vortex Tubes! (Fridges with air pressure)
Post by DDHvi   » Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:41 pm

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We received some used control cabinets with Hilsch (vortex) tube coolers to prevent overheating. Efficiency is low, reliability is almost as high as the air supply since the air is the only moving part, and you get hot air coming out of the other exhaust end.

For anyone who wants to know, the incoming air makes a vortex which is tapped at the center for the cold air (that expanded against centrifugal forces) and at the edge for hot air (that is compressed by centrifugal forces as it moves outward. Also there are friction effects). By adjusting correctly, with approx 100PSI room temperature input air, it is possible to get well below zero degF at the cold exit, and near boiling at the hot exit. Other refrigeration methods with higher efficiency and capacity limit uses for the vortex tubes. I don't know when they were invented, I first read about them in one of the Astounding SF fact articles of the 50s.

Other applications, such as cooling working machine tool cutters, are useful where reliability, small size, and simplicity are more important than efficiency and capacity.
Douglas Hvistendahl
Retired technical nerd
ddhviste@drtel.net

Dumb mistakes are very irritating.
Smart mistakes go on forever
Unless you test your assumptions!
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