Mitigation of Shell-Side Liquid Maldistribution in Coil Wound Heat Exchanger Bundles
AssigneeAir Products and Chemicals, Inc.
InventorsBo Jin, Justin David Bukowski, Patrick Alan Houghton, Christopher Michael Ott, Mark Julian Roberts, Mark Robert Pillarella
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Abstract
Described herein are coil wound heat exchangers (CWHEs), and methods of cooling and/or liquefying streams of fluid using said CWHEs, in which one or more tube layers of the tube bundle are provided with a non-uniform tube winding angle and tube pitch in order to facilitate the equalization of radial pressure imbalances on the shell side of the CWHE, thereby reducing radial maldistribution of fluid on the shell side and improving the heat transfer efficiency of the CWHE.
Claims15
A coil wound heat exchanger (CWHE) comprising a tube bundle enclosed within a pressure vessel, the tube bundle comprising a plurality of tubes for conveying one or more streams of fluid in heat exchange with a fluid flowing through the pressure vessel externally to the tubes, said tubes being helically wound about a mandrel extending in an axial direction of the bundle so as to form a plurality of tube layers around said mandrel, each of said tube layers comprising one or more of said helically wound tubes, wherein at least one of the tube layers has a first tube winding angle and a first tube pitch at a first axial location of the layer towards one axial end of the bundle, a second tube winding angle and a second tube pitch at a second axial location of the layer towards the opposite axial end of the bundle, and a third tube winding angle and third tube pitch at a third axial location of the layer between the first axial location and second axial location, the third tube winding angle being greater than the first tube winding angle and greater than the second tube winding angle and the third tube pitch being greater than the first tube pitch and greater than the second tube pitch.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.