Refrigeration apparatus
AssigneeLuke Co., Ltd.
InventorWilliam E. Dobney
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The specification discloses a refrigeration apparatus suitable for cooling water in an air conditioning system, the apparatus having a heat exchanger in which certain heat exchanger tubes are omitted to greatly enhance the overall performance of the apparatus. This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 118,885, filed Feb. 6, 1980, now abandoned.
Claims17
Refrigeration apparatus for cooling a fluid, said apparatus comprising:
- a heat exchanger having a shell, tubes for flow of refrigerant through the shell from a refrigerant inlet to a refrigerant outlet, baffle means for the shell for defining a tortuous flow path for said fluid through the shell, said tubes which lead to the refrigerant outlet being located only in those regions of the shell where the flow path of said liquid has substantial components of velocity in a direction transverse to the tubes;
- a condenser for supplying liquid refrigerant to said refrigerant inlet;
- a compressor for receiving evaporated refrigerant from said refrigerant outlet and for supplying compressed refrigerant to said condensor;
- valve means for controlling the flow of refrigerant;
- and
- sensing means for sensing the state of refrigerant at said refrigerant outlet and being operable to control said valve means so as to reduce flow of refrigerant if a liquid refrigerant or conditions indicative thereof are sensed at said outlet.
A heat exchanger comprising an elongated shell, an inlet chamber and an outlet chamber located at one end of said shell, transfer chamber means located at the opposite end of said shell, said shell having fluid inlet and fluid outlet means, a plurality of transverse baffles disposed in said shell in spaced apart parallel relation along the length of said shell, each of said baffles having an opening adjacent the side of said shell with the openings in alternate baffles being located at opposite sides of said shell to define a tortuous flow path for fluid passing through said shell from said fluid inlet means to said fluid outlet means, inlet tube means extending from said inlet chamber to said transfer chamber means through said baffles and outlet tube means extending from said transfer chmaber means to said outlet chamber only in those regions of the shell where the flow path of said liquid has substantial components of velocity in the direction transverse to said outlet tube means;
- each of said tube means having helical grooves in the internal surface thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.