A numerical simulation has been conducted to investigate the physics of the Ranque-Hilsch vortex tube. Even though currently available turbulent models cannot predict such complex flow accurately, it was expected that the simulation would enlighten underlying physics qualitatively. The balance of energy on a fluid particle moving along some typical streamlines through shear work and heat transfer was investigated to explain the physics of energy separation process. It was found that the heat transfer cancels major part of the energy separation done by shear work. It was also found that the most of energy separation occur near inlet and hot outlet.