Additively manufactured heat exchanger
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsNicholas Allan Wilson, Jeffrey Douglas Rambo, Donald Michael Corsmeier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat exchanger includes a heat exchanger core, a header defining a header manifold, and a transition portion that provides fluid communication between the heat exchanger core and the header manifold. The transition portion includes a transition tube extending between the header and the heat exchanger core, a header junction where the transition tube joins the header, and a splitting junction that splits the transition tube into the plurality of heat exchange tubes. The header junction may define elliptical inlet apertures, a large filleted joint, and a junction thickness that is greater than a header wall thickness.
Claims15
A heat exchanger defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction, the heat exchanger comprising:
- a heat exchanger core comprising a plurality of heat exchange tubes;
- a header defining a circular cross section and extending along the transverse direction and defining a header manifold, the header defining a header wall thickness;
- and
- a transition portion providing fluid communication between the heat exchanger core and the header manifold, wherein the transition portion comprises:
- a transition tube extending between the header and the heat exchanger core;
- and
- a header junction where the transition tube joins the header, the header junction defining a protrusion extending at least partially into a volume defined by an inner wall of the header manifold to define a junction thickness that is greater than 1.5 times the header wall thickness wherein the header junction defines an inlet aperture, and wherein the protrusion surrounds the inlet aperture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.