A heat exchanger with a vapor-liquid distributor
AssigneeNuovo Pignone Tecnologie Srl
InventorOlaf STALLMANN
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plate fin heat exchanger comprising: a) a core having a top and a bottom; b) corrugated heat transfer fins and parting sheets in said core, forming: b1. heat-releasing fluid ducts fluidly connecting a heat-releasing fluid inlet header at the bottom of the core and a heat-releasing fluid outlet header at the top of the core; b2. evaporating fluid ducts fluidly connecting an evaporating fluid inlet header at the top of the core and an evaporating fluid outlet header at the bottom of the core; c) and a vapor-liquid distributor between the evaporating fluid inlet header and the core.
Claims23
A plate fin heat exchanger comprising:
- a) a core having a top and a bottom;
- b) corrugated heat transfer fins and parting sheets in said core, forming:
- b1. heat-releasing fluid ducts fluidly connecting a heat-releasing fluid inlet header at the bottom of the core and a heat-releasing fluid outlet header at the top of the core;
- b2. evaporating fluid ducts fluidly connecting an evaporating fluid inlet header at the top of the core and an evaporating fluid outlet header at the bottom of the core;
- c) and a vapor-liquid distributor between the evaporating fluid inlet header and the core;
- wherein the vapor-liquid distributor comprises an inlet plenum and a plurality of evaporating fluid receiving chambers;
- wherein the evaporating fluid receiving chambers are horizontally arranged side-by-side in a direction orthogonal to the corrugated heat transfer fins and parting sheets of the core;
- and wherein each said evaporating fluid receiving chamber is fluidly coupled to the inlet plenum through a nozzle arrangement.
A method of evaporating a fluid in a plate-fin heat exchanger, wherein the plate-fin heat exchanger comprises:
- a) core having a top and a bottom;
- b) corrugated heat transfer fins and parting sheets in said core, forming:
- b1. heat-releasing fluid ducts fluidly connecting a heat-releasing fluid inlet header at the bottom of the core and a heat-releasing fluid outlet header at the top of the core;
- b2. evaporating fluid ducts fluidly connecting an evaporating fluid inlet header at the top of the core and an evaporating fluid outlet header at the bottom of the core;
- and
- c) a vapor-liquid distributor between the evaporating fluid inlet header and the core;
- wherein the method comprises the following steps:
- feeding a two-phase evaporating fluid through the evaporating fluid inlet header and the vapor-liquid distributor into the heat exchanger;
- flowing the evaporating fluid through the evaporating fluid ducts in a top-to-bottom direction in heat exchange with a heat-releasing fluid flowing through the heat-releasing fluid ducts in a bottom-to-top direction from the heat-releasing fluid inlet header to the heat-releasing fluid outlet header.
A heat exchanging system comprising a plate fin heat exchanger comprising:
- a) a core having a top and a bottom;
- b) corrugated heat transfer fins and parting sheets in said core, forming:
- b1. heat-releasing fluid ducts fluidly connecting a heat-releasing fluid inlet header at the bottom of the core and a heat-releasing fluid outlet header at the top of the core;
- wherein in use a heat-releasing fluid flows from the heat-releasing fluid inlet header to the heat-releasing fluid outlet header and through heat-releasing fluid ducts;
- b2. evaporating fluid ducts fluidly connecting an evaporating fluid inlet header at the top of the core and an evaporating fluid outlet header at the bottom of the core;
- c) a vapor-liquid distributor between the evaporating fluid inlet header and the core;
- wherein in use the vapor-liquid distributor;
- d) an evaporating fluid inlet duct fluidly coupled to the evaporating fluid inlet header;
- wherein, in use:
- the evaporating fluid inlet duct is adapted to feed an evaporating fluid to the evaporating fluid inlet header;
- and the vapor-liquid distributor is adapted to distribute a two-phase evaporating fluid to the evaporating fluid ducts, such that the evaporating fluid flows from the top to the bottom of the heat exchanger in heat exchange with the heat releasing fluid flowing from the bottom to the top of the heat exchanger, and receives heat from the heat-releasing fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.