US3548932A

US3548932A - Heat exchanger

Info

Publication number: US3548932A
Application number: US842079A
Authority: US
Inventors: Milton Menkus
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1969-07-08
Filing date: 1969-07-08
Publication date: 1970-12-22
Anticipated expiration: 1987-12-22

Description

United States Patent 3,380,517 FOREIGN PATENTS 842 5/1924 Great Milton Menkus [72] Inventor ry phil W. Streule 064,137 12/1953 France Primary Examiner-Robert A. OLea Arm-rant Examiner-Theo [22] Filed July8,1969 [45] Patented Dec. 22, 1970 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 612,927,, Jan. 31, 1967, now Patent No, Attorneys-Kenwood Ross and Chester E. Flavin 3,470,950, dated Oct. 7, 1969.

Fzab 3/02 checkerboard fashion with portions of certain of the barriers 165/165' d for defining ports and permitting intercommunicaong separate tortuous acent interconnectin [51] Int." [50] Flcldofsearcll........

ach end of the stack acting to mutually perpendicular inlet flows of certain w courses and outlet flows of certain other of the flow remove 166 tion between certain chambers and a1 flow courses between series of ad {561 References CM chambers, and headering means at e UNITED STATES PATENTS commoda Jones............................ 165/166 of the flu Southam 16511661 courses FIGJ.

INVENTOR. MILTO NKUS ATTORNEYS.

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PATENTEUUEI322|97U 3548832 SHEET t 0F 4 TEMPERED OUTSIDE AIR TO AIR HANDLING UNIT OUTSIDE CONTAMINATED AIR TO BE ROOM AIR HEATED COOLED AIR To EXHAUST FAN INVENTOR.

MILTON M ENKUS BY @014 e ATTORNEYS.

HEAT EXCHANGER CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention The invention relates to a labyrinth-type heat exchanger for effecting the transfer of heat from a plurality of flows of one fluid, each flowing a adjacent one side of a plurality of barriers, to a plurality of flows of another fluid, each flowing adjacent the other side of the plurality of barriers, with cooperant headering means at each end of the exchanger, each headering means allowing the conduct of the one fluid from the plurality of flows thereof to and through the headering means at one end thereof to a first cooperating duct and the conduct of the other fluid from the plurality of flows thereof to and through the headering means at right angles of the first named one end to a second cooperating duct.

2. Description of the Prior Art Efficient heat exchangers of the prior art have been expensive in manufacture, complicated in design, lacking in flexibility as to fields of use, and limited as to scope of application.

The need for an efficient heat exchanger of simple construction, yet with a high rate of heat transfer, together with a facility, by virtue of a manifolding feature, to provide a wide range of capacities, has long been felt. Y

Simple headering means at each end of the structure to handle a plurality of fluid flows, traveling in the same or opposite directions, has long been needed. In the case of a labyrinthtype heat exchanger, where a plurality of side-by-side fluid passageways discharge into a common header at one end of the structure, with certain thereof being. ingoing in flow direction and others thereof being outcoming in flow direction, the side-by-side alternating arrangement presents outrageous problems of design in the matter of headering all of the ingoing passageways to a common duct without interfering with the headering of all of the outgoing passageways to another common duct.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a heat exchanger of modular design,

- used as either a parallel 'or counterflow type, wherewith infinite variations can be'approached by the's imple expedient of increasing or decreasing the number of modules or elements, or the size of the modules, or the length or configuration of the flow paths.

The heat exchanger accommodates fluids having an extremely high rate of heat transfer resultant from the unique provisions for the fluid flow paths through the structure.

The headering means is so arranged that the directions of the inlet and outlet fluid flows into and from the elements at each end thereof are mutually perpendicular.

The heat exchanger has as many applications as there are uses for heat exchangers generally. For example, it may serve as a boiler or an appendage thereto, as a furnace, as a roof or wall or other structural panel of a building or room or the like with inherent ducting and heat exchange capabilities, or as a separate accessory where outside air used for make-up in a building or room may be heated by air being exhausted therefrom. Further, it may be exploited by its use for acoustical treatments inherent in its design as a labrinth-type heat exchanger, same lending themselves to instances where noise is a serious problem in connection with air or other fluid handling. a

The invention offers the advantage of being economically producible so as to allow ready removal and replacement with an almost complete elimination of maintenance costs, all based upon the principle of planned replacement.

The invention broadly comprehends acceleration and deceleration of fluid flow due to variations in the area available in the course of intercellular flow as fluid is progressed through a flow path and pulsing-type velocity changes in fluid .flow resulting in expansion or contraction, causing the labyrinth or helical flow to accelerate and decelerate and to change paths whereby turbulence is increased so as to enhance heat transfer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IE'DRAWINGS FIG. I is a fragmentary view, in perspective, of the heat exchanger made up of a plurality of heat transfer cellular elements in a cooperating stacked relationship;

FIG. 2 is a view, in top plan, of the topmost heat transfer cellular element of FIG. 1, with the upper wall or plate removed;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary view, in top plan, of one of the heat transfer cellular elements;

FIG. 14 is a small scale schematic view of a typical heating application illustrating the general direction of movement of the fluid flow paths; and

, FIG. 5 is a small scale schematic view of another typical heating application illustrating another general direction of the movement of the fluid flow paths.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The term fluid, as herein employed, will be understood to mean anything that will flow, whether of liquid or gaseous form.

The term heat exchanger" has been used for purposes of convenience, and in the classical sense of any device used to transfer heat from a fluid flowing on one side of a barrier to another fluid flowing on the other side of the barrier.

The heat exchanger may take the form of one or more elements, enclosed and separated by walls or plates, and connected, as by suitable inlet header or inlet lines and associated ducting, to supply sources of heated and/or cooled fluids and, as by suitable outlet headers or outlet lines and associated ducting, to other fluid-handling means.

In FIG. 1, I have shown a heat exchanger or manifold or sandwich construction comprising a plurality of intermediate heat transfer cellular elements, generally designated l0, disposed between an uppermost heat transfer cellular element 12 and a lowermost heat transfer cellular element Id. The elements are vertically stacked, one above another, with each element being separated from adjacent elements by intermediate walls or plates 16. Uppermost heat transfer cellular element I2 is also enclosed on its outboard side by an uppermost wall or plate 18 and lowennost heat transfer cellular element 1 4 is also enclosed on its outboard side by a lowermost wall or plate 20.

While only five heat transfer cellular elements have been shown in FIG. 1, I do not desire to be limited thereto since any number of elements of any desired flow path length or arrangement may be employed to meet different installation requirements.

The elements are suitably enclosed at their opposite sides by sidewalls or side plates 22 and the opposite ends are suitably connected to headers for fluid flow inlets and outlets, subsequently to be more fully described.

Each heat transfer cellular element, sometimes called a grille, includes a plurality of equispaced, parallel, upright, longitudinally extending walls 32 and a plurality of equispaced, parallel, upright, transversely extending walls 34 normal to and intersecting the first-named walls, the two sets of walls cooperantly defining a plurality of generally square or other shape cells or chambers 36.

The opposite intermediate or uppermost or lowermost walls or plates 16, I 8, 20 respectively, as the case may be, may be defined as cell-enclosing walls and are each mutually perpendicular to both the longitudinally and transversely extending walls, 32, 34 respectively.

40, 42 respectively spaced along their lengths, which ports extend downwardly from the upper planar edges of the

walls

32, 34 and are equispaced in manner to afford communication between certain of the adjacent cells 36 along zigzag or tortuous or sinuous courses.

In the case of each heat transfer cellular element, the socalled cell-enclosing walls and certain of the ported portions and certain of the non ported portions of certain of the longitudinally and transversely extending walls cooperantly define a multiplicity of spaced primary series of intercommunicating fluid-carrying cells disposed in a common plane, with each of such primary series defining a tortuous first fluid-flow path identified by the arrows A (in FIG. I), and a multiplicity of spaced secondary series of intercommunicating fluid-carrying cells disposed in the same common plane, with each of such secondary series defining a tortuous second fluid-flow path identified by the arrows B.

As shown, each secondary series is contiguously juxtaposed between an adjacent pair of the primary series.

The fluid-flow paths indicated by arrows A may be heated paths and the fluid paths indicated by arrows B, may be cooled paths in a counterflow arrangement. The paths can be of the parallel type, if desired, counterflow being herein illustrated wherein paths A and B alternate throughout the width of each element.

By stacking the elements, greater capacity of fluid flow and more complete and efficient heat transfer is obtained. For example, a certain flow path of the topmost intermediate element in FIG. 1 is bounded on two of its sides, in its own plane, by adjacent oppositely flowing flow paths, is bounded on its upper side in the next upper horizontal plane by a flow path of upper element 12, and is bounded on its lower side in the next lower horizontal plane by a flow path of the next adjacent intermediate element 10.

' Of course, the relationship between the flow paths in each of the several planes may be varied. That is, a heated fluid path in one of the intermediate elements may be bounded on its upper and lower sides by heated or cooled fluid paths and it may be bounded on all of its sides by parallel or counter flow paths.

It is to be noted that, when flow paths are of equal lengths, equal pressure drops are maintained from the inlet header to the outlet header, thereby avoiding short-circuiting paths which tend to reduce the overall efficiency of heat transfer. Differing flow path lengths may be utilized in those instances where it might be advantageous to do so, as in a triple, quadruple or larger fluid heat exchange system.-

The flow paths here provided offer the advantage of obtaining greater turbulence of the fluids passed therealong.

As shown in FIG. 2, the heat transfer cellular element is arranged as a parallelogram for ease of headering. Were the element square or rectangular, all of the fluid flow inlets and all of the fluid flow outlets at one end of the element would be in the same vertical plane so as to aggravate the headering problem.

Since each flow path must have its own inlet at one end and at its own outlet at the other-end, the headering space problem can reach tremendous proportions. It is a simple enough problem to interconnect the multiplicity of staggered inlets in a common plane or to interconnect the multiplicity of staggered outlets in the same common plane; it is quite another matter both to interconnect all inlets and to interconnect all outlets when all are not in a common plane.

My solution to this problem is achieved by disposing the flows of the inlet and outlet headers at right angles to each other at each end of a heat transfer element or a stack thereof.

As best seen in FIG. I, a plurality of enclosed horizontally disposed inlet conduits or connector channels 50 are connected at their inboard ends to the outermost end wall 34 of the heat transfer cellular element, one serving every other port 42. These conduits or connector channels are connected at their opposite outboard ends to a vertically-disposed wall 60 The area between the outermost end walls 34 of the elements of the stack and the wall 60 defines a triangular-shape headering area through which the spaced inlet conduits extend in a bridging manner and into which the other ports 42 in the outermost end wall 34, no so connected to inlet conduits 50, discharge their fluids. These ports may, if desired, be provided with wall extensions 33 on the adjacent walls 32 which extend slightly into the headering area so as to cause the fluid flow passing therethrough to turn angularly away from the general axes defined by the conduits 50.

The outlet fluid flows in the oppositedirection from that of the inlet fluid and passes directly through the last of the series of open ports 42 between each of the inlet conduits 50 and then flows freely over and under and around the conduits 50 which are staggered as to each other, to a secondary duct 66, (see FIG. 2).

This arrangement is repeated at each end of the stack of heat exchange elements as shown in FIG. 2, wherein inlet directions are indicated by the arrows a and outlet directions are indicated by the arrows b, which inlet and outlet directions are mutually perpendicular to each other in the same plane at both ends of the heat exchanger.

As shown, the assembled heat exchanger with its headers is generally rectangular in plan so that all flow paths are of the same length.

Cell enclosing plates

16, 18 and 20 may be provided with wings or extensions l7, l9 and 21 respectively which may serve as strengthening ribs.

In a typical application, flow of outside air to be heated is into the exchanger via arrow B and outwardly of the exchanger via arrow A as tempered outside air to the air handling unit, as illustrated in FIG. 4. Therein, the contaminated room air follows a counterflow pattern via arrow B through the exchanger and outwardly thereof as cooled air to the exhaust fan via arrow A.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5, theflow via arrow A may be into the exchanger at one end and outwardly thereof via arrow A at the opposite end, with the counterflow being into and from the exchanger via arrows B at opposite sides thereof and at right angles to the flow of the fluids of arrow A.

I claim:

1. In a labyrinth-type heat'exchanger for transferring heat I from high temperature sources of heat-transferring fluid flow to low temperature sources of heat-receiving fluid flow and ineludi g a core having top and bottom walls and one end connected to an inboard-headering means and an opposite end connected to an outboard-headering means and comprised by a stack of grilles disposed in a multiplicity of parallel planes separated from each other by a cell-enclosing wall and with each grille comprising:

a. a plurality of cells defining a multiplicity of primary series of intercommunicating fluid-carrying cells each arranged as a first fluid flow course having a terminal port at each end of the grille and a multiplicity of secondary series of intercommunicating fluidcarrying cells each arranged as a second fluid flow course having a terminal port at each end of the grille; b. with each second fluid flow course being contiguously juxtaposed between and in sealed relation with an adjacent pair of first fluid flow courses and with the terminal ports of each first fluid flow course being spaced from the terminal ports of the next adjacent second fluid flow courses; the improvement in the inboard and outboard headering means with each headering means being constituted by: A. a primary duct having a wall connected at one side edge thereof to one side edge of the adjacent end of the stack; B. a secondary duct connected at one side edge thereof to the other side edge of the adjacent end of the stack and interconnected to the other side edge of the primary duct wall, the secondary duct being in right angular relationship with the primary duct;

C. a header enclosed by the interconnected adjacent end of the stack and the primary and secondary ducts and a header-enclosing wall at the topand at the bottom of the stack;

D. a plurality of connector channels spaced as to each other in and each extending through the header and connecting between and communicatively connected to one of the terminal ports of the first fluid flow courses and the wall of the primary duct for allowing fluid flow communication through the connector channels and between the first fluid flow courses and the primary duct and fluid flow communication between the second fluid flow courses and the adjacent terminal ports thereof and the secondary duct by way of sinuous flow within the header and around the exterior walls of the connector channels; and

E with cross-sectional dimensionsof each headering means corresponding to the cross-sectional dimensions of the core.

2. In a labyrinth-type heat exchanger for transferring heat from high temperature sources of heat-transferring fluid flow to low temperature sources of heat-receiving fluid flow, the improvement consisting of:

A. a plurality of grilles disposed in stacked relationship in a multiplicity of parallel planes:

a. each grille comprising a plurality of longitudinally extending walls intersected by a plurality of transversely extending walls defining a plurality of cells;

b. a cell-enclosing wall disposed between and common to pairs of adjacent grilles of the stack and a cell-enclosing wall disposed on the opposite outer sides of the stack, each cell-enclosing wall being mutually perpendicular to the longitudinally and transversely extending walls; l

c. certain portions of certain of the longitudinally and transversely extending walls being ported;

d. the cell-enclosing walls and certain of the ported portions and certain of the nonported portions of certain of the longitudinally and transversely extending walls cooperantly defining:

1. a multiplicity of spaced primary series of intercommunicating fluid carrying cells disposed in a common plane with each such series defining a. helically shaped first fluid-flow course; and

2. a multiplicity of spaced secondary series intercommunicating fluid-carrying cells disposed in the same common plane with each such series defining a helically shaped second fluid flow course flowing counter to the direction of the first fluidflow course;

e. each of the secondary series being contiguously juxtaposed between an adjacent pair of primary series;

f. and each of the secondary series of each intermediate grille being juxtaposed adjacent a primary series on each of its sides;

g. with each wall of the secondary series being contiguously juxtaposed in heat transfer relation with a wall of an adjacent primary series; and

B. inboard and outboard-headering means at opposite ends of the stack of grilles with the cross-sectional dimensions of each headering means corresponding to the cross-sectional dimensions of the stack.