Heat exchange device and method
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorsJoseph Horace Brand, Kevin Allan Dooley, Cameron Todd Walters, Michael Dowhan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A heat exchange device comprising a fluid flow passage having a plurality of successive segments in fluid flow communication with one another, the segments being adapted to maintain a developing flow therein and thereby improve heat transfer.
Claims13
A heat exchange device comprising a body having at least one coolant flow passage formed therein, the coolant flow passage being a single enclosed passage formed within said body, the single enclosed passage having a plurality of linear channel segments in serial fluid flow communication such that each segment communicates directly with only one upstream segment and one downstream segment, each of said segments extending from an inlet to an outlet and having a segment channel axis therethrough, in use a coolant flow through each segment being directed along the segment channel axis, the channel axes of successive segments disposed substantially perpendicularly relative to one another and all of said channel axes being located in a common plane defined within said body, each segment having a length less than a length required for fully-developed laminar flow and thereby causing a pipe inlet effect in each segment, and wherein the body is a monolithic current-carrying winding of an electric machine and the coolant flow passage is formed in at least one peripheral surface of the body.
A heat exchange device comprising a body defining at least one tortuous coolant flow passage, said body having at least one peripheral surface thereon in conductive heat transfer communication with said coolant flow passage, each coolant flow passage being a single enclosed passage formed by a plurality of serially connected and perpendicularly-oriented channel segments in serial fluid flow communication such that immediately successive channel segments are disposed perpendicularly to one another, all of said channel segments extending in a common plane defined within said body, each of said segments having a length less than a length required for said fluid to achieve a fully developed laminar flow therein, each channel segment being configured such that the Nusselt number of the flow therethrough decreases only insubstantially to a minimum Nusselt number value higher than that corresponding to laminar flow, the successive channel segments being relatively oriented such that the Nusselt number of the flow therethrough is abruptly elevated when the flow enters each successive channel segment, and wherein the body is a monolithic current-carrying winding of an electric machine, and the coolant flow passage is formed in the at least one peripheral surface the body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.