Flatplate, Inc.

Alcoll USA LLC

Alcoil, Inc.

Alcoil USA LLC

Steven Michael Wand

James Eric Bogart

Brian James Emery

A heat exchanger for use with a two-phase refrigerant includes an inlet header, an outlet header, and a plurality of refrigerant tubes hydraulically connecting the headers. A distributor tube has a plurality of orifices disposed in the inlet header, the end of the refrigerant tubes opposite the outlet header extends inside the inlet header and abuts a surface of the distributor tube, a portion of an inner surface of the inlet header facing the surface of the distributor tube and the surface of the distributor tube defining a first chamber. A gap separates at least a portion of the distributor tube and the inlet header, the gap extending from at least the orifices to the first chamber, wherein at least one partition having at least one opening formed therethrough spanning the gap, the partition separating the orifices from the first chamber.

Heat exchanger

The invention is directed to a heat exchanger with optimal performance and a method of optimizing the performance of a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger has a first manifold, a second manifold and tubes extending therebetween. The tubes have at least one opening which extends through the entire length of the tubes. The method may include: governing the pressure drop in the heat exchanger by selecting different size openings or configurations of the tubes depending upon the type of refrigerant used and the properties thereof; optimizing the dimensions of the first manifold and second manifold, such that the ratio of manifold to tube size or manifold to tube opening cross sectional area yields low pressure drops and minimized the effects of pressure drop in the manifold and tube combination; and optimizing the ratio of the mass flow capacity of the first and second manifolds to the tubes flow capacity such that the first manifold has minimal or negligible mal-distribution effect when providing refrigerant to the tubes, thereby improving the overall performance of the heat exchanger.

A plate heat exchanger includes a plurality of plates for providing a flow path for two fluids. The plate heat exchanger has an inlet and an outlet for each of the two fluids, wherein facing surfaces of two adjacent plates of the plurality of plates defines a flow path for a first fluid. The opposite surface of one of the two adjacent plates and a facing surface of another adjacent plate from the plurality of plates provides a flow path for a second fluid. The first fluid and the second fluid flowing along their respective flow paths are maintained in thermal communication with each other. A plurality of surface features associated with at least a portion of one surface of at least one of the plates provides enhanced heat transfer between the two fluids passing along adjacent plates.

Plate heat exchanger with enhanced surface features

A stacked plate heat exchanger has flow passages for three different fluids formed between the plates. Passages for the third fluid are adjacent to both sides of each passage for the first fluid and each passage for the second fluid. In a preferred embodiment the passages are formed using only two plate surface configurations, and proper sealing of adjacent plates at the ports forming the inlet and outlet conduits for the three fluids is achieved by configuring the areas around the ports to define a system of annular planar platforms. For improved heat transfer when the exchanger is mounted in the horizontal position, baffles may be formed in the passages for the first and second fluids to control and direct the flow of those fluids.

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York, PA, United States of America

Steven Michael Wand