JPH0678855B2 - Air cooler - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a Brayton cycle air cooler using air as a refrigerant.

2. Description of the Related Art The ultraviolet rays of the sun's rays that irradiate the earth are said to be harmful to the human body due to skin cancer, etc. if exposed too much, but the ozone layer surrounding the earth has a barrier function against the ultraviolet rays. By doing so, it enables the survival of many living things including human beings. However, in recent years, the destruction of the ozone layer has become a problem, and as one of the main causes thereof, the CFC gas released into the atmosphere has been taken up.

This CFC gas has been used as various aerosol solvents, and has also been used in large quantities as a refrigerator refrigerant. Therefore, in order to prevent the destruction of the ozone layer by CFCs, a movement to regulate the production and use of CFCs is being promoted on a global scale.

Therefore, there has been a demand for a refrigeration / cooling system that replaces the conventional refrigerator using CFC gas for a refrigerator, a refrigerator, or an air conditioner. Then, the Brayton cycle air cooler which cools using air as a refrigerant came to be reviewed.

In the conventional Brayton cycle air cooler, as shown in FIG. 3, a heat exchanger 12 is provided downstream of the compressor 11 to radiate heat and lower the temperature of the air increased by compression, and then the expansion valve 13 is used. It is a system that cools air by adiabatic expansion. When the expansion valve 13 adiabatically expands and cools,
The dehumidifier 14 removes moisture in the air that is in a supersaturated state and causes dew condensation, and then is blown out as cold air from the indoor unit 15 into the room to be used as a cooler or the like.

Further, if this Brayton cycle is shown in the Ts diagram in FIG. 4, when the air taken in from the outside in the state of T1 is compressed, the temperature rises to the state of T2a. Next, heat is released with the pressure kept constant to the state of T3, adiabatic expansion is performed to cool to the state of T4a, and after dehumidification, the temperature of the object to be cooled is cooled in the state of T5 to raise the temperature. (Or, after blowing into the room as cold air, fresh air is taken in), and the state of T1 is restored.

However, in the heat exchanger used in the compressor 17 of the conventional air cooler described above, in order to increase the contact area with the outside air and increase the heat exchange efficiency, the compressed air is compressed. It is common to form a heat dissipation pipe portion of a pipe through which air flows into a ninety-nine bent shape. Therefore, in the conventional compressor, in order to secure a sufficient contact area with the outside air, it is inevitable that the heat exchanger becomes large to some extent, and as a result, the size of the entire air cooler becomes large. There was a problem.

This invention was made under the technical background described above,
An object of the present invention is to provide an air cooler in which the cooling efficiency of the entire apparatus is increased and the entire apparatus is made compact by increasing the heat exchange efficiency of the heat exchanger and downsizing the heat exchanger.

Means for Solving the Problem As a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is to increase the temperature of compressed air that is compressed in a compressor and circulates in a pipe, radiate the heat in a heat exchanger, and then insulate it in an expander. Expand and cool,
Passing this cooling air through the dehumidifier, in an air cooler that cools the object to be cooled by the cooling air that has passed through the dehumidifier,
The heat exchanger includes a heat pipe, one end of which is an evaporation unit that receives heat from the heat dissipation unit of the pipe, and the other end of which is a condensation unit that radiates heat to the outside. It is characterized in that it faces a flow passage of another cooling air to be taken in, and that the flow passage is provided with a sprayer for spraying the water separated from the cooling air in the dehumidifier.

Operation With the above-mentioned configuration, the air compressed and heated by the compressor is deprived of heat by the evaporating portion of the heat pipe of the heat exchanger to lower the temperature and then sent to the expansion valve or the expansion turbine. The cooled air is adiabatically expanded and cooled, and the cooled air is used for cooling the object to be cooled after the moisture in the air is removed by the dehumidifier. Then, the heat pipe of the heat exchanger, when the evaporation portion is heated by the heat taken from the section of the heat radiation portion of the pipe through which the heated air flows,
The condensable working fluid enclosed in the heat pipe evaporates and moves to the condensing part, radiates heat in the condensing part, condenses, returns to the liquid phase, and returns to the evaporating part. Then, the evaporation section is repeatedly heated and evaporated again to perform highly efficient heat exchange. Here, the water separated from the air by the dehumidifier is sprayed on the flow path of the cooling air from the outside sprayed from the fan to the condensing part of the heat pipe in the heat exchanger, and the cooling air is generated by the heat of vaporization. Lower the temperature of. Therefore, the heat dissipation efficiency of the condensing part of the heat pipe becomes high, and the heat exchange efficiency as the heat exchanger becomes high.

Therefore, by using the heat pipe and effectively utilizing the water separated by the dehumidifier, the heat exchanger becomes small and has high performance, and the air cooler can be made compact.

Embodiment An embodiment of the air cooler of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

The air cooler includes a compressor 31 that compresses air and the compressor 31.
A drive source 32 such as an electric motor for driving 31 is provided, and a heat exchanger 33 is provided on the discharge side of the compressor 31. An expansion turbine 34 is provided on the outflow side of the heat exchanger 33, and a dehumidifier 35 is provided downstream of the expansion turbine 34. The rotary shaft of the expansion turbine 34 is connected to the rotary shaft of the compressor 31 by a connecting shaft 36, and the compressor 31 is rotationally driven by the rotational force of the expansion turbine 34 when the compressed air adiabatically expands. It has become so.

In addition, the expansion turbine 34 adiabatically expands and cools the dehumidifier.
The air dehumidified in 35 is used for the load in the room, etc.
And used as cooling air.

Further, the moisture separated from the air by the dehumidifier 35 is sent to the heat exchanger 33 through the pipe 38, sprayed into the air from the sprayer 38a at the tip of the pipe 38, and taken into the heat exchanger 33. The temperature of the cooling air is reduced by removing the heat of vaporization from the cooling air.

The heat exchanger 33 is provided with a heat pipe 40 in which a condensable working fluid is sealed, and the heat pipe 40 is compressed at the outer periphery of an evaporation portion (right side in FIG. 2) 40a. A section of the heat radiation portion 39a of the pipe 39 through which the air flows is wound so as to directly contact the outer peripheral surface of the heat pipe 40. The condenser 40b side of the heat pipe 40 is arranged so as to face the flow passage of the cooling air which is taken in from the outside by the fan 41 and whose temperature is lowered by the water sprayed from the sprayer 38a.

Incidentally, T1, T2a, T3, T4a, T5 in FIG. 1 correspond to T1, T2a, T3, T4a, T5 on the Ts diagram shown in FIG. 4, respectively.

Next, to explain the operation of this embodiment, the air that has been compressed by the compressor 31 and the temperature of which has risen is circulated in the pipe 39 and sent to the heat exchanger 33, and the outer periphery of the evaporation section 40a of the heat pipe 40. After the heat is taken away from the heat radiating section 39 wound around and cooled, it is significantly cooled by adiabatic expansion by the expansion turbine 34, and further dehumidified by the dehumidifier 35, and then as low-temperature air, for example, cooling. It is sent to the load 37, such as the target room, and used as cooling air.

Further, the heat pipe 40 of the heat exchanger 33 is heated by the heat taken from the air heated by the evaporating section 40a, the working fluid sealed inside evaporates and moves to the condensing section 40b, and the cooling air is also used. The heat is radiated in the condenser section 40b that is cooled by, and condensed to return to the liquid-phase working fluid, and is returned to the evaporation section 40a by the capillary action of the wick (not shown) provided on the inner circumference of the heat pipe 40. In this way, heat is taken from the outside in the evaporation unit 40a to evaporate, and heat is condensed in the condensation unit 40b to be condensed repeatedly, and the temperature of the air heated by compression is lowered.

As described above, in the heat exchanger 33, the heat pipe 40
The vapor of the working fluid vaporized in the vaporization section 40a of the above, the heat of the compressed and heated air is instantly transferred to the condensation section 40b in the form of latent heat of vaporization and radiated, so that heat is efficiently exchanged. The temperature of the compressed air is lowered so that the cooling temperature at the time of adiabatic expansion performed in the next expansion turbine 24 becomes lower.

Further, since the rotation shaft of the expansion turbine 34 and the rotation shaft of the compressor 31 are connected by the connecting shaft 36 so as to rotate integrally, the rotational force of the expansion turbine 34 except when the air cooler is started. Can be used as the driving force of the compressor 31, so that significant energy saving can be achieved.

Further, as a driving method of the compressor 31, in addition to an electric motor, for example, in an automobile, a turbine rotating by exhaust gas of an engine can be used as a drive source, and particularly, a large refrigerator such as a refrigerating vehicle or a cold storage vehicle. Suitable for.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, the air cooler of the present invention cools the heated air that has been compressed by the compressor and circulated in the pipe, which is radiated by the heat exchanger and adiabatically expanded by the expander. In the air cooler that cools the object to be cooled with the dehumidified cooling air after passing the cooling air through the dehumidifier, the heat exchanger has one end that receives heat from the heat radiation portion of the pipe. Part, and the other end part is configured to include a heat pipe as a condensing part for releasing heat to the outside, and the moisture separated by the dehumidifier blows the cooling air flow passage to the condensing part of the heat pipe. Since it is sprayed on, the heat exchange efficiency of the heat exchanger is improved, the heat exchanger can be downsized accordingly, and the air cooler can be made compact and highly efficient.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the structure of an air cooler, FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the essential parts thereof, and FIGS. Shows a conventional example, FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a conventional air cooler, and FIG. 4 is its Ts diagram. 31 ... Compressor, 32 ... Drive source, 33 ... Heat exchanger, 34 ... Expansion turbine, 35 ... Dehumidifier, 36 ... Connection shaft, 37 ... Load, 39 ...
Piping, 39a ... Piping heat dissipation part, 40 ... Heat pipe, 40a ... Evaporating part, 40b ... Condensing part.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Ryuichi Okiayu 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masataka Mochizuki 1-5-1, Kiba, Koto-ku, Tokyo Fujikura Electric Wire Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Anthony F. Matalk United States, California, Los Altos, William Henry Coat, 1700 (72) Inventor Jonsey Hansikar, California, Morgan Hill, Pinto Court, 2520 (56) Reference Reference JP 62-223572 (JP, A) JP 60-159565 (JP, A) JP 62-102061 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A heated air that has been compressed by a compressor and circulated in a pipe is radiated by a heat exchanger, then adiabatically expanded by an expander and cooled, and the cooled air is passed through a dehumidifier, In an air cooler that cools an object to be cooled with cooling air that has passed through a dehumidifier, the heat exchanger has one end as an evaporation unit that receives heat from a heat radiating unit of the pipe, and the other end that transfers heat to the outside. It includes a heat pipe as a discharging condensing part, the condensing part being faced to another cooling air flow passage taken in from outside by a fan, and being separated from the cooling air in the dehumidifier in the flow passage. An air cooler characterized by being provided with a sprayer for spraying water.