Heat exchanger baffles

In a shell and tube square pitch heat exchanger having a longitudinal shell, tube sheets at opposite ends of said shell, a plurality of parallel tubes in a bundle of generally cylindrical form extending between said tube sheets and arranged in a pattern such that the center lines of any four adjacent tubes are at the corners of a square, means to introduce fluid to said tubes and withdraw fluid from said tubes at the faces of said tube sheets, means to introduce fluid to the interior of said shell external of said tubes and to withdraw fluid therefrom;

• the improved structure for baffling flow of shell side fluid and for supporting and stabilizing said tubes which comprises a first set of parallel rods extending between said tubes across said shell positioned in alternate spaces between tubes, a second set of parallel rods extending parallel to rods of said first set between said tubes across said shell in the spaces not so occupied by rods of said first set, third and fourth such sets arranged in like manner to said first and second sets, respectively, but at right angles to said first and second sets, successive rods of each set being spaced along the length of the exchanger to define a plane at an acute angle to the axis of said exchanger, whereby the ends of the rods in any said set define an ellipse, the rods being disposed parallel to the minor axis of said ellipse.