Heat exchanger wall, in particular for spray vaporization

In a heat exchanger wall for the transfer of heat from a first medium on one side of the wall to a second medium to be evaporated on an other side of the wall, said other side having thereon integral, aligned distributor grooves for distributing a liquid phase of the second medium, the improvement wherein

• (a) said wall is in a form of a heat exchanger tube having plural channels defined by spaced and upstanding channel walls and means for defining plural outwardly opening distributor grooves extending transversely to the channel walls and in a contiguous, continuous and longitudinally aligned form adjacent outer edges of the channel walls, the channels and the distributor grooves each extending at an inclined angle with respect to a longitudinal axis of the tube,
• (b) the distributor grooves intersect the channels, the channels having a pitch t and lie below the distributor grooves,
• (c) the distributor grooves are formed by laterally displaced material of a radially outer portion of the channel walls to a depth T lying generally between 30% and 90% of a channel height h, the displaced material from all pairs of mutually adjacent channel walls being at least partly in contact with one another to define the contiguous, continuous and longitudinally aligned distributor groove form, and
• (d) the distributor grooves are connected to the channels through means defining openings in the distributor grooves.