Coil Wound Heat Exchanger Deformable Support System And Method

A method of forming a tube bundle for a coil wound heat exchanger, wherein the tube bundle comprises multiple tube layers, each layer comprises at least one tube, and the method comprises:

• (a) providing a mandrel that extends along a mandrel longitudinal axis;
• (b) forming a first tube layer by winding at least one of the at least one tubes around the mandrel, the at least one tube having a tube height H;
• (c) placing a plurality of first layer supports and a plurality of first layer spacers on an outer tube surface of the first tube layer in a circumferentially-alternating arrangement, each of the plurality of first layer supports having an undeformed support height H2 and each of the plurality of first layer spacers having a spacer height H1;
• (d) forming a second tube layer by winding at least one of the at least one tubes around the mandrel, the first tube layer, and the plurality of first layer supports;
• and
• (e) applying at least one deforming force to the second tube layer sufficient to deform each of the plurality of first layer supports without deforming the at least one tube forming the second tube layer;
• wherein the first and second tube layers have an initial layer spacing at each of the plurality of first layer supports prior to performing step (e) and a final layer spacing at each of the plurality of first layer supports after performing step (e), the final layer spacing being less than the initial layer spacing.