In this study, heating and cooling performances of counter-flow Ranque-Hilsch vortex tubes (RHVT) were experimentally investigated and modeled with a RBMTF (Rule-Based Mamdani-Type Fuzzy) modeling technique. Input parameters (xi, L/D) and output parameters Delta T-h, Delta T-c were described by RBMTF if-then rules. 81 experimental data sets were used in the training step. Numerical parameters of input and output variables were fuzzificated as linguistic variables: Very Very Low (L1), Very Low (L2), Low (L3), Negative Medium (L4), Medium (L5), Positive Medium (L6), High (L7), Very High (L8) and Very Very High (L9) linguistic classes. R-2 for the Delta T-h was found to be 99.60% and R-2 for the Delta T-c was 99.80%. The actual values and RBMTF results indicated that RBMTF can be successfully used for the determination of heating and cooling performances of counter-flow RHVT with different geometric constructions for steel. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.