Air cooled heat exchanger
AssigneeDhes B.V.
InventorWilhelmus Franciskus Schoonen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An air cooled heat exchanger (1) for cooling a medium, comprising a hollow shell (2) provided with a tube inlet (3) for receiving a medium (M, M′) to be cooled and a tube outlet (4) for discharging the medium (M), wherein the shell (2) houses a tube arrangement (5) connecting the tube inlet (3) to the tube outlet (4); wherein the shell (2) is filled with a thermally conductive air permeable material (6) in tight engagement with the tube arrangement (5); wherein the shell (2) is provided with an air inlet (7) for receiving air (A) and an air outlet (8) for di charging the air (A), and wherein the thermally conductive air permeable material (6) fluidly connects the air inlet (7) to the air outlet (8).
Claims14
An air cooled heat exchanger for cooling a medium,
- comprising a hollow shell provided with a tube inlet for receiving a medium to be cooled and a tube outlet for discharging the medium, wherein the shell houses a tube arrangement connecting the tube inlet to the tube outlet;
- wherein the shell is filled with a thermally conductive air permeable material in tight engagement with the tube arrangement;
- wherein the shell is provided with an air inlet for receiving air and an air outlet for discharging the air, and wherein the thermally conductive air permeable material fluidly connects the air inlet to the air outlet,
- wherein the shell is a toroidal or cylindrical shell, and wherein the tube arrangement comprises a plurality of tubes forming a wounded tube bundle extending through the toroidal or cylindrical shell around a centre thereof.
A method of cooling a gaseous medium using an air cooled heat exchanger comprising the steps of:
- compressing a medium using a compressor;
- feeding the compressed medium to a tube inlet of a hollow shell of the air cooled heat exchanger at a first temperature, wherein the hollow shell is filled with a thermally conductive air permeable material;
- feeding air to an air inlet of the hollow shell of the air cooled heat exchanger;
- discharging the compressed medium through the tube outlet of the hollow shell at a second temperature, wherein a tube arrangement connects the tube inlet and the tube outlet and the second temperature being lower than the first temperature, and
- feeding the discharged compressed medium (M) to a further heat exchanger for further cooling to a third temperature, the third temperature being lower than the second temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.