Heat exchanger with a distribution device capable of uniformly distributing a medium to a plurality of exchanger tubes

A heat exchanger (1) comprising:

• first through M-th tube groups, each tube group comprising at least one exchanger tube (10), where M represents an integer greater than one;
• and
• a distribution device (3) comprising a distribution tank (30) supplied with a mixed-phase medium consisting essentially of a gas-phase medium and a liquid-phase medium, and first through M-th distribution paths (31, 32, and 33) for directing said mixed-phase medium from said distribution tank to said first through said M-th tube groups, each of said first through said M-th distribution paths having a medium inlet port and a medium outlet port;
• wherein:
• the medium inlet ports of said first through said M-th distribution paths are coupled to first through M-th regions of said distribution tank, respectively, said first through said M-th regions containing a medium having first through M-th void ratios, respectively, which are different from each other, where each void ratio is defined as a ratio of the volume of the gas-phase medium present in each region of said distribution tank to the volume of both the gas-phase medium and the liquid-phase medium present in each region of said distribution tank;
• the medium outlet ports of said first through said M-th distribution paths being coupled to the exchanger tubes of said first through said M-th tube groups, respectively;
• the number of exchanger tubes in each of said first through said M-th tube groups and an inner cross-sectional area of each of said first through said M-th distribution paths defined on the basis of the first through M-th void ratios of said first through M-th regions of said distribution tank, such that when said heat exchanger is provided with said mixed-phase medium, a mass flow of said mixed-phase medium in each exchanger tube is substantially equal.