CN114303031A

CN114303031A - Airflow system

Info

Publication number: CN114303031A
Application number: CN202080060503.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 文森特·特里普; 亚瑟·范德里
Original assignee: Dutch Innovation In Air Treatment Bv
Current assignee: Dutch Innovation In Air Treatment Bv
Priority date: 2019-08-30
Filing date: 2020-08-24
Publication date: 2022-04-08
Anticipated expiration: 2040-08-24
Also published as: BR112022003099A2; MX2022002212A; US20220290890A1; WO2021037807A1; CN114303031B; JP2022545832A; AU2020336896A1; NL2023734B1; IL290831A; KR20220054403A; ZA202202046B; EP4022228A1; CA3151102A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a modular airflow system comprising at least a first hollow cuboid shaped airflow element and a second hollow cuboid shaped airflow element. The four edges of at least one open face of the first airflow member are connected to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow cuboid-shaped airflow member in an airtight manner. There is a valve or a diaphragm at the connection opening face. The gas flow system may be a header of a plate heat exchanger.

Description

Airflow system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an airflow system.

Background

A modular manifold as an air flow system is described in US 2011/0220224. This publication describes a manifold consisting of modules that are interconnected in a straight row using couplers and an elongated cladding. There are connectors on one side of the manifold to connect to the valve and either the inlet or outlet duct. Modular manifolds are advantageous because, as explained in this publication, they can be easily modified to change capacity and/or flow paths and allow for repair or removal of individual valves. A disadvantage of the modular manifold described in US2011/0220224 is that the modules require multiple components (e.g. couplers and cladding) to hold the modules together. The manifold can then only extend in one direction, and for some applications more design freedom is required.

WO2016206714 describes a building provided with a central air drying system and a plurality of locally positioned evaporative cooling units. The evaporative cooling unit is an air flow system using plate heat exchangers. Because evaporative cooling units are placed in spaces of buildings, it is envisaged that different sizes of spaces in a building will require different sizes of cooling units. By using more or fewer plates in the plate heat exchanger, plate heat exchangers of different capacities can easily be obtained. However, this results in different sizes of the stack and thus also of the headers for supplying and discharging air to the plate stack.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide an air flow system, exemplarily for use as a header for a plate heat exchanger, which can easily be manufactured in different sizes.

This object is achieved by the following gas flow system. A gas flow system comprising at least a first hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element and a second hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element, each gas flow element having an interior space, six open faces, eight vertices and twelve ribs interconnecting the eight vertices,

wherein the four edges of at least one open face of the first airflow member are connected to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow member at their respective connection open faces in an airtight manner, and

wherein there is a valve at the connection open face, the valve having one or more open positions to fluidly connect the interior space of the first hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element with the interior space of the second hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element to enable the first gas flow to flow from one hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element to another hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element of the system, and wherein the valve has a closed position to fluidly disconnect the interior space of the first hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element from the interior space of the second hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element to disable the first gas flow to flow from the first hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element to the other hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element, or

Wherein a partition is present at the connection opening face so as to fluidly disconnect the inner space of the first hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element from the inner space of the second hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element, such that the second gas flow passes through the first hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element, and such that the fluidly disconnected third gas flow passes through the second hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element.

The applicant has found that with the modular system according to the invention, headers for plate heat exchangers of different sizes can be manufactured using the same hollow cuboid shaped gas flow elements. This is advantageous because it may then only be necessary to manufacture one type of hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element of a single size. In addition, the hollow rectangular parallelepiped shaped airflow member allows one to make an airflow passage that makes a 90 ° turn and divides one airflow passage into more than one airflow passage. This is not possible with the modular manifold of US2011/0220224 described earlier.

The cuboid may be a rectangular cuboid, preferably a square cuboid, also referred to as a cube. A cube is preferred because other second cubes can be connected to all open faces of the cube using all open faces of the second cube. This provides more design freedom than a rectangular cuboid.

The hollow cuboid has an interior space for the passage of gases. The open space fluidly connects the six open faces of the cuboid. The shape and size of the ribs are suitably the same. The ribs are relatively small in cross-section, resulting in a relatively large open space. The open space suitably comprises more than 70%, preferably more than 80% of the total area of one side of the cuboid.

The four edges of the at least one open face of the first airflow member are connected to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow cuboid-shaped airflow member at their respective connection open faces in a gastight manner. This connection can be achieved by welding, adhesive or by separate connecting means which engage the ribs at the connection opening face. Suitably, the four edges connecting the open faces are provided with connecting means to connect to the four edges connecting the open faces of the second hollow cuboid airflow element. Such means may be a raised tube coupling system using an interference fit. An example of such a connection is the well-known le gao block. Such connecting means may also be an extension of the ribs from the first hollow cuboid airflow element, which extension is capable of forming a snap connection with the ribs of the second hollow cuboid airflow element.

The above-described connection may also be achieved by using a connection frame. Such a connecting frame is preferably provided with means to connect to the four edges of the open face of the first airflow element and with connecting means to connect to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow cuboid airflow element. In this way, the four edges of the open face of the first airflow member are connected to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow member in an airtight manner.

The connection frame may be used to fluidly connect only two hollow cuboid shaped gas flow elements. When used for this purpose, the connecting frame may be relatively thin. Preferably, the connecting frame itself defining the distance between two connected hollow cuboid shaped gas flow elements is between 0.1cm and 0.6 cm. The frame will then be provided with openings for the air flow between the connected air flow elements.

According to the invention, the connection frame may also comprise valves or partitions. A suitable valve is a rotary valve. The rotary valve may be connected to a means of operating the rotation of the valve. Such means may be positioned on the connecting frame or outside the hollow cuboid-shaped airflow element. The partition may be a closed connecting frame without openings for the gas flow between the connected gas flow elements.

The connection frame can also be combined with other functional devices, such as air filters (e.g. dust collectors), water injectors, clamps for holding wires, wire feed-through elements, heating elements, cooling elements, sensors (e.g. temperature sensors, pressure sensors, humidity sensors), silencers or flow meters. When this additional function is present on the connecting frame, the frame itself may be thicker than if the frame was used alone for connection or provided with spacers.

The above-described functions do not necessarily have to be part of the connection frame. Also in the case where the connection frame is not used, the hollow rectangular parallelepiped airflow member may be composed of such a device having these functions. The device may be connected to the ribs of the hollow cuboid shaped airflow element, for example using a frame, using a similar connection means as described above.

When the airflow elements are directly coupled, the valve may be a rotary valve present in a rectangular frame without a connecting frame. The rectangular frame is connected to the edges of the connecting surface of the first hollow rectangular parallelepiped air flow element or the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped air flow element. For this connection, there may be a connection device as described above.

When the airflow elements are directly coupled, the partition may be a rectangular closed frame without a connecting frame, and wherein the rectangular frame is connected to the edges of the connecting faces of the first hollow cuboid-shaped airflow element and/or the second hollow cuboid-shaped airflow element. For this connection, there may be a connection device as described above.

The hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element is suitably made of a polymer. Preferably, the hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element is a single injection molded work product. The connecting frame is also preferably made of a polymer and is preferably a single injection molded work product.

The dimensions of the hollow cuboid shaped airflow element may vary. When they are used in conjunction with a plate heat exchanger, it is preferred to use elements having a smallest dimension of the ribs of 0.1m and a largest dimension of the ribs of 0.3m as the distance along the ribs between two vertices.

The hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element, the connecting frame, the rectangular frame and/or the rectangular closed frame may be made of a polymer. Polymers useful for injection molding are preferred. Suitable polymers are polypropylene (PP) and/or Polyoxymethylene (POM).

The connecting frame preferably has substantially the same dimensions as the sides of the hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element. The connecting frame is either closed to provide a partition or is provided with an opening in its center to allow fluid communication between the first hollow cuboid airflow element and the second hollow cuboid airflow element. The open space is preferably substantially the same shape as the open face of the hollow rectangular parallelepiped airflow element. The remaining edges of the frame are provided with means for connecting to the four edges of the open face of the first airflow element and with connecting means for connecting to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow cuboid airflow element.

The means for connecting the connecting frame to the edges of the open faces of the first and second hollow cuboid shaped airflow elements may be any connection that results in an airtight connection between the open faces of the cuboids and the connecting frame. The connection means may be a raised tube coupling system using an interference fit. An example of such a connection is the well-known le gao block. The preferred connection means is a snap connection. Preferably, the connecting frame is provided with an extension having a cantilever snap connector. Preferably, the frame is provided with a number of protrusions in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame. The protrusion is suitably provided with a sharp edge at its end. When the frame is placed over the open space of the hollow cuboid, the protrusions will enter the open space and bend as they move along the edges of the open space. When the frame reaches its airtight position, the sharp edge or tang snaps around the edge of the hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element and the frame fits tightly.

In order to allow the abutment surface of the hollow cuboid gas flow element to be connected to the second hollow cuboid gas flow element, preferably the cantilever snap connection is not placed at the same position along the edges of the connection frame. Thus, by providing a frame with ribs at different positions relative to the cantilever snap connections, it is possible to connect the connecting frame to adjacent open faces of the cuboid shaped airflow element. Preferably, the snap connections on the first parallel ribs may be identically positioned, while the snap connections on the remaining two second parallel ribs are positioned differently than the first parallel ribs. In this way, identical connecting frames can be used for adjacent open faces, wherein one of the first parallel edges of one connecting frame and one of the second parallel edges of the other connecting frame are connected to the same edge of the hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element.

The remaining open faces of the first and second rectangular parallelepiped flow elements may be connected to other hollow rectangular parallelepiped flow elements of the same design and shape. In this way, an airflow system may be provided comprising different ducts for different first, second and third airflows. In such a system the open face of the hollow cuboid airflow member not connected to another airflow member would be closed or fluidly connected to the upstream or downstream portion of the airflow through the airflow system. Preferably, the remaining open face of the first hollow cuboid gas flow element or the second hollow cuboid gas flow element is closed in a gas-tight manner by a four-edged enclosure element connected to the open face. Some of the open faces of some of the airflow elements may be connected to the air inlet or to the air outlet.

May be connected to the air inlet and the air outlet by a transition frame. Such a transition frame may be connected to the open face of the hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow member in the same manner as the connection frame. The transition frame may be provided with means to connect to a pipe or to other parts of the apparatus. In the case of use as part of a plate heat exchanger, it is conceivable to provide some standard piece for connection to the transition frame, wherein the standard piece may be used for plate heat exchangers of different sizes.

The fence elements may also be attached to the open face in the same manner as the connecting frame or rectangular closed frame.

The gas flow system is preferably used as a header for a heat exchanger, preferably a plate heat exchanger. The system comprises two parallel rows of hollow cuboid shaped gas flow elements fluidly connected. The two rows are interconnected by a plurality of connecting open faces provided with baffles. The second and third gas streams, which are produced with the fluid cut off, are gas streams that are heat exchanged in a heat exchanger.

The plate heat exchanger described above is preferably used as part of an evaporative cooling unit. More preferably, the evaporative cooling unit is part of a system for cooling a building, wherein the building is provided with a central air drying system and a plurality of locally positioned evaporative cooling units. An example of such a system is described in WO 2016206714.

Detailed Description

The invention will be illustrated by the following non-limiting figures.

Fig. 1 shows a hollow cube-shaped gas flow element (3). The airflow member has an inner space (4), six open faces (5), eight apexes (6), and twelve ribs (7) connecting the eight apexes (6) to each other.

Fig. 2 shows a connecting frame (8) provided with an opening (9) and four edges (10). Along the edge (10), the extrusion can be seen oriented in two directions perpendicular to the plane of the frame. These extrusions are cantilevered snap connections (11) that can be connected to the ribs (7) of the airflow member (3), as shown in figure 3.

Fig. 4 shows a detail of the gas flow element (1) at one of its vertices (6), where one open face is provided with a connecting frame (8) and the adjacent open face is provided with a fence element (15). The connection frame (8) and the fence element (15) are each provided with a plurality of protrusions (16) in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the connection frame (8) or the plane of the fence element (15). The projections (16) are provided with sharp edges (17) at their ends, which are dimensioned such that they form a cantilever snap connection with the ribs (7). As shown, the location of the protrusions (16) connecting the frame (8) and the fence elements (15) are not at the same location along the edges of these elements. This makes it possible for adjacent open faces of the gas flow element (1) to be provided with a connecting frame (8), a wall element (15) or other element on their common edge (7) by means of a snap connection.

In fig. 5, two connected airflow elements (3) of a system (12) are shown as a first hollow cuboid airflow element (1) and a second hollow cuboid airflow element (2). The four edges (7) of at least one open face (5) of the first airflow element (1) are connected to the four edges (7a) of the open face (5a) of the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow element (2) in an airtight manner by a connecting frame (8). In this way, the inner space (4) of the first hollow cuboid gas flow element (1) is in fluid connection with the inner space (4a) of the second hollow cuboid gas flow element (2).

In fig. 5, only the connection frame (8) is shown. In practical applications of the gas flow system, the remaining open faces (5) of the gas flow element (2) and the gas flow element (3) may be closed in a gas-tight manner by a fence element connected to the four edges of the open face or to another cuboid gas flow element by means of a connecting frame or to a gas inlet or to a gas outlet. The next flow element may be connected to the flow element (2) or flow element (3) at the outer end of the flow element (2) or flow element (3) forming a linear flow path for the gas, or may be connected to an open face at the side, forming a flow path that turns through 90 °.

In fig. 5, the connecting frame (8) is provided with a rotary valve (13). The valve (13) can fluidly disconnect the interior space (4) from the interior space (4a) in the closed position and fluidly connect the interior space (4) with the interior space (4a) in the open position. The valve (13) rotates about an axis and is operable from outside the airflow member (1) and the airflow member (2) via a shaft (14) as means for operating the rotation of the valve.

Fig. 6 shows that two connected airflow elements (3) of a system are shown as a first hollow cuboid airflow element (1) and a second hollow cuboid airflow element (2). The four edges (7) of at least one open face (5) of the first air flow element (1) are connected in a gastight manner directly to the four edges (7a) of the open face (5a) of the second hollow cuboid air flow element (2). The rotary valve (20) is present in a rectangular frame (21). The frame (21) is connected to the ribs (7) of the second hollow cuboid gas flow element (2). As shown, the same ribs (7) are connected to the ribs of the first hollow cuboid shaped airflow element (1).

Fig. 7 shows a schematic cross section of a plate heat exchanger (20) with hexagonal heat exchange surfaces (21), where heat can be exchanged between a first air flow (22) and a second air flow (23). The first and second air streams will flow from to the header through the alternating spaces between the stacked heat exchange surfaces (21). The first gas stream (22) will flow from the header (24) to the header (25). The second gas stream will flow from the header (26) to the header (27). The manifold (24) is fluidly connected to an air inlet (28). The header (27) is fluidly connected to the outlet (29). The manifold (25) is fluidly connected to the outlet port (30) by a valve (31), and the manifold (26) is fluidly connected to the inlet port (32) by a valve (33). The manifold (25) is connected to the manifold (26) by a valve (34).

In fig. 8, the plate heat exchanger (20) of fig. 7 is shown in a three-dimensional view. Some of the walls are not shown to better view the various components of the heat exchanger. A stack (35) of heat exchanging surfaces (23) is shown. The manifold (25) is made of a row of 4 interconnected airflow elements (1) connected by a connecting frame (8) as shown in fig. 1-6. The manifold (26) is also made of a row of 4 interconnected flow elements (1). The headers (25) and (26) are interconnected by 4 interconnecting frames (8) provided with rotary valves (13). The four rotary valves (13) are interconnected and operated by an externally located motor (36). For headers not shown but present on opposite sides of the plate heat exchanger, the connection of the two rows of gas flow elements may be made by means of a partition present in the connection opening face, thereby fluidly disconnecting the gas flow through both headers.

The manifold (25) is connected at its distal end to another gas flow element (37) by a connecting frame (8) provided with a valve (31). The flow member connects the header 25 with the outlet 30. The air outlet (30) is fluidly connected to the airflow element (37) by means of an adapter wall element (38), the adapter wall element (38) being connected to the open face of the airflow element (37) by means of a snap-fit connection as shown in fig. 4.

Claims

1. A gas flow system comprising at least a first hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element and a second hollow cuboid-shaped gas flow element, each gas flow element having an interior space, six open faces, eight vertices and twelve ribs interconnecting the eight vertices,

wherein four edges of at least one open face of the first airflow member are connected to four edges of an open face of the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow member at their respective connection open faces in an airtight manner, and

wherein there is a valve at the connecting open face, said valve having one or more open positions, thereby fluidly connecting the interior space of the first hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element with the interior space of the second hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element, so that a first gas flow can flow from one hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element to another hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element of the system, and wherein said valve has a closed position, thereby fluidly disconnecting the interior space of the first hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element from the interior space of the second hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element, or wherein said valve has a closed position, wherein said first gas flow element is connected to the second gas flow element, and wherein said second gas flow element is connected to the second gas flow element, or wherein said valve is connected to the second gas flow element, and wherein said second gas flow element is connected to the second gas flow element, and wherein said gas flow element is connected to the second gas flow element

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the cuboid is a rectangular cuboid.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the cuboid is a square cuboid.

4. The system of any one of claims 1-3, wherein the hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element is a single injection molded work product.

5. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the four edges connecting the open faces are provided with connecting means to connect to the four edges connecting the open faces of the second hollow cuboid shaped gas flow element.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the means for connecting the four edges of the first hollow cuboid airflow member to the four edges of the second hollow cuboid airflow member is first an extension from the edges of the first hollow cuboid airflow member capable of forming a snap-fit connection with the edges of the second hollow cuboid airflow member.

7. The system of any one of claims 1-6, wherein the valve is a rotary valve present in a rectangular frame, and wherein the rectangular frame is connected to an edge of a connection face of the first or second hollow cuboid gas flow element.

8. The system of any one of claims 1-6, wherein the partition is a rectangular closed frame, and wherein the rectangular frame is connected to an edge of a connection face of the first or second hollow cuboid airflow element.

9. The system according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at their respective connection open faces, four edges of the open face of the first airflow member are connected to four edges of the open face of the second hollow rectangular parallelepiped-shaped airflow member in an airtight manner by a connection frame,

wherein the connection frame is provided with means to connect to the four edges of the open face of the first airflow element and with connection means to connect to the four edges of the open face of the second hollow cuboid airflow element.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the connection frame comprises a valve, or wherein the connection frame is closed to form a diaphragm.

11. System according to any one of claims 4-9, wherein the hollow cuboid-shaped flow element and/or the optional connection frame is made of polypropylene (PP) and/or Polyoxymethylene (POM).

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the means for connecting the connecting frame to the edges of the open faces of the first and second hollow cuboid airflow elements is a snap-fit connection.

13. The system according to any one of claims 1-12, wherein the remaining open face of the first or second hollow cuboid gas flow element is closed in a gas tight manner by a fence element connected to the four edges of the open face or to another cuboid gas flow element or to a gas inlet or to a gas outlet.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the fence elements are connected to the four edges by snap connections, wherein the means present on the fence form snap connections with the edges of the open face.

15. A system according to any one of claims 1-14, used as a header for a heat exchanger comprising two parallel rows of fluidly connected hollow cuboid shaped gas flow elements, wherein the two rows are interconnected by a plurality of connecting open faces provided with baffles, and wherein the second and third gas flows generated are gas flows heat exchanged in the heat exchanger.