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US 2008/0022949 A1Published application
Heat exchanger framework
AssigneeBabcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc.
InventorGeorge H. Harth
Life of this patent
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AssigneeBabcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc.
InventorGeorge H. Harth
Estimating the term…
A structural framework for supporting the heat exchanger of a steam generator, the former being comprised of serpentine tubes having sloped segments to facilitate the drainage of water from the heat exchanger when the steam generator is shutdown. The structural framework includes paired groups of vertically and diagonally extending first support members contiguously straddling the sloped-tube segments. The paired first support members are rigidly connected by second support members which extend between adjacent sloped-tube segments. The structural framework preserves the spacing between the sloped-tube segments and prevents direct contact between adjoining tube surfaces, but is not attached to the straddled tube segments and, thus, provides a tube supporting fit that is loose enough to permit the tubes to move freely due to expansion and contraction at different rates from that of the structural framework.
A supporting structural framework for a tubular heat exchanger having at least one bank of serpentine tubes disposed in rows spaced in side-by-side parallel relation, each of the rows including spaced coplanar elongate sloped-tube segments and return-bend tube segments, the supporting structural framework including first and second support members, the first members being paired to straddle the sloped-tube segments of each of at least some of the rows and the second members extending between the sloped-tube segments of the straddled rows, and the first and second support members being rigidly interconnected to provide a tube supporting fit that is loose enough to permit relative movement between the tubes and the supporting structural framework due to differential thermal expansion and contraction.
In combination, an on-line steam generator producing a heated flue gas stream and including a vertical passageway through which the gas stream is conveyed, a supporting structural framework for a heat exchanger having at least one bank of serpentine tubes disposed in rows within the passageway and across the gas stream in side-by-side parallel relation, means for passing a fluid to be heated through the tubes, each of the tube rows including spaced and substantially coplanar elongate tube segments and return-bend tube segments, the elongate tube segments being sloped to cause the drainage of fluid collected therein when the steam generator is shutdown, and the structural framework including rigidly interconnected first and second support members to provide a tube supporting fit that is loose enough to permit relative movement between the tubes and the supporting structural framework due to differential thermal expansion and contraction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.