Recuperator design

A concentric tube recuperative heat exchanger that comprises a plurality of laterally adjacent modules arranged to permit serial flow therethrough of a heating fluid and a fluid to be heated, each of said modules comprising a housing that encloses parallel upper and lower tube sheets having aligned apertures therein, said tube sheets dividing each module into a lower compartment for a heating fluid, an upper compartment for a fluid that has been heated and an inlet compartment for cool fluid to be heated therebetween, outer tube means tightly embracing the apertures of the lower tube sheet having a closed end that depends downward therefrom into the compartment for the heating fluid, central tube means embracing an aperture of the upper tube sheet and extending therebetween, an inlet port in said housing adapted to admit a cool fluid to be heated to the inlet compartment and direct it down through the annular passageway and up through the central tube to the outlet compartment for the heated fluid, means admitting a heating fluid to the heat exchange compartment and directing it over the outer tube means in heat exchange relation with the fluid to be heated, and an elongate support beam extending laterally between housing walls intermediate said tube sheets adapted to support the tube sheets and the tube means depending therefrom.