JPH01147294A - Heat exchanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an uniform heat exchange action throughout the whole surface of a heat exchanger and to sharply improve heat exchange capacity, by providing a flat metallic pipe through which heat-exchangeable fluid is caused to flow and a metallic foam located in the metallic pipe and uniformizing the flow of the fluid. CONSTITUTION:An evaporator is provided with a bent beltform flat metallic pipe 10, and each fin 20 is engaged between parallel pipe parts 11 of the flat metallic pipe 10 by soldering. A blockform metallic foam 30 is engagedly mounted longitudinally of the flat metallic pipe 10 in the flat metallic pipe 10, and the outer surface of the metallic foam 30 is uniformly secured on the inner surface of the flat metallic pipe 10 by soldering. A foaming metallic material is formed of an aluminum material, being light and excellent in heat transfer, so as to have the coefficient of foam of 60-90%. A skeleton is formed in a three-dimensional uniform netty shape like a sponge, and when a refrigerant flows, the refrigerant uniformly generates turbulence due to a number of the meshes of the metallic foam 30 through the whole of the metallic foam 30.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to improvements in evaporators and other various heat exchangers such as vehicle near conditioners.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, in this type of heat exchanger, for example,
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 32772, there is a stacked evaporator in which a diffusion plate is provided within a flat tube element to diffuse the flow of refrigerant within the tube element.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in such a configuration, the diffusion plate is made of a thin metal plate that has been cut and beveled by pressing, so that a mesh-like refrigerant passage with a large surface area is formed in the tube element. However, there is a limit to how finely the thin metal plate can be cut and raised by press working alone. For this reason, limitations arise in making the flow of the refrigerant uniform within the tube element, improving the turbulent flow effect of the refrigerant, expanding the heat transfer surface area, and the like. As a result, a problem arises in that a uniform heat exchange function cannot be ensured throughout the evaporator.

Therefore, the present invention aims to provide a heat exchanger that effectively utilizes the functions of metal foam in order to cope with such problems.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve this problem, the present invention includes a flat metal tube through which a heat exchangeable fluid passes, and a metal foam that is fitted into the metal tube to uniformize the flow of the fluid. There is a particular thing.

[Effect]

By configuring the present invention in this manner, when the fluid flows into the metal tube, the fluid passes through the metal foam. In such a case, since the metal foam has a uniform foaming effect throughout the metal foam, the fluid flowing into the metal foam causes a uniform turbulent flow throughout the metal foam. It passes in a uniformly distributed state.

Therefore, a uniform heat exchange effect is properly exerted over the entire surface of the heat exchanger, which helps greatly improve the heat exchange ability of this type of heat exchanger. Moreover, this effect can be further promoted by the improvement in heat transfer ability due to the increase in the contact area of the fluid with the inside of the metal foam.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The figure shows a part of a serpentine evaporator according to the invention. This evaporator is equipped with a band-shaped flat metal tube 10 bent into the shape shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, they are fitted together by brazing.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a block-shaped metal foam 30 is fitted into the flat metal tube 10 in the longitudinal direction of the flat metal tube 10. are uniformly fixed to the inner surface of the flat metal tube 10 by brazing. In such a case, the metal foam 30 is sequentially fitted into the flat metal tube 10 as a plurality of block parts processed into blocks from a foamed metal material. In this embodiment, it is preferable to use, for example, a foamed metal material manufactured by Chuo Electric Industry Co., Ltd. as the above-mentioned foamed metal material. The foamed metal material is made of lightweight aluminum material with good heat transfer and has a foaming rate of 60% to 90% (due to continuous foaming), and the skeleton of this foamed metal material is three-dimensional like a sponge. It has a mesh-like shape. For this reason,
When the refrigerant passes through the metal foam 30, the refrigerant generates a turbulent flow uniformly throughout the metal foam 30 due to the large number of meshes of the metal foam 30.

By the way, in manufacturing such an evaporator, since the above-mentioned metal foam material has flexibility, the metal foam 30 is sequentially fitted and brazed into the flat metal tube 10 in the form of blocks, and then The flat metal tube may be bent as shown in FIG. 1, or the metal foam 30 may be sequentially fitted in blocks, and the flat metal tube may be bent and brazed together. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10a indicates a refrigerant inlet of the flat metal tube 10.

In this embodiment configured as described above, when the refrigerant flows into the flat metal tube 10 of the evaporator from the refrigerant inlet, the refrigerant passes through the metal foam 30. In such a case, since the metal foam 30 has the above-mentioned unique characteristics, the refrigerant that has flowed into the metal foam 30 will react to the metal foam under the foaming action of the countless meshes of the metal foam 30. body 3
A turbulent flow is generated uniformly over the whole of the metal foam and passes through the metal foam in a uniformly distributed state. In other words, the flat metal tube 10 and The heat exchange action with the air flow contacting each surface of each fin 20 can be performed uniformly over the entire surface of the evaporator. As a result, the cooling capacity throughout the evaporator can be significantly improved. Moreover, since the metal foam 30 is made of aluminum material, it also helps to reduce the weight of the evaporator.

In the above embodiments, an example in which the present invention was applied to a serpentine evaporator was explained. However, even if the present invention is applied to a doron cup type evaporator instead, the same results as in the above embodiments will be obtained. can achieve the following effects. In such a case, each metal foam body 60 (only one plate is shown in FIG. 3) is placed between each pair of metal plates 40, 50 (only one pair is shown in FIG. 3) forming a refrigerant passage.
Brazing may be configured so that it is clamped. Note that each metal foam 60 is made of the same material as the metal foam 30 in the above embodiment.

Further, in carrying out the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the evaporator, and may be applied to various heat exchangers such as heater cores and condensers.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a partial sectional view of the flat metal tube and metal foam in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of essential parts showing a modification of the embodiment. Explanation of symbols 10...Flat metal tube, 30.60...Metal foam,
40.50...Metal plate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A heat exchanger comprising a flat metal tube through which a heat-exchangeable fluid passes, and a metal foam inserted within the metal tube to equalize the flow of the fluid.