Heat Exchanger
The invention presents a MONOBLOC fin and plate heat exchanger design preventing internal leakages and intermixing of high-temperature and low-temperature flows, e.g. oil and fuel. This is achieved through a particular configuration of the heat exchanger, whereby its core assembly is completely or partially produced from a one-piece monolithic metallic block. Owing to that, all brazed seams, which in conventional fin and plate heat exchangers contact with both hot medium and cold medium flows, are fully abolished thereby excluding a source for imperfections usually developing in brazed joints and base metal in the process of pressure-temperature cyclic loading. Employing custom-made individual fins allows about two-fold increase in the strength of brazed joints in comparison with ordinary corrugated fins (due to doubling of the brazed surface). As a result, the suggested configuration allows the design of a high reliability compact heat transfer device for much higher operating pressures than what may be achieved in the conventional fin and plate heat exchanger. This invention may be used in different fields of modern technology, especially for aeronautical engine applications, where the challenge of ensuring reliability levels of one failure in millions of (fleet-cumulative) flight hours, and operating pressure levels of thousands of pounds per square inch, must be met.
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The present invention relates to heat exchange technology and equipment, and more particularly concerns design and methods of manufacture of heat exchangers for aeronautical applications. It may prove to be most advantageous for the production of highly reliable compact heat transfer devices, particularly adapted for high pressure operating conditions.
At present in aeronautical engineering both the shell-tube and fin-plate heat exchangers are widely used for high pressure applications. With rising pressure magnitudes, however, the fin and plate heat exchanger will be limited in the future.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ARTThe classical shell and tube heat exchanger is diagrammatically shown in
This type of heat exchanger is suited for high pressures in view of its tubular construction which provides uniform stresses. At the same time it suffers from some serious disadvantages.
The shell and tube heat exchanger transfers heat through a primary surface, i.e. the walls of the tubes, and the corresponding area of this surface is relatively small. This leads to a poorer unitary thermal performance resulting in a larger volume and increased weight.
Another imperfection of the shell and tube heat exchanger consists in that the connection between the tubes and the tube-sheet, which is achieved by swaging, welding or brazing, is a sensitive area in respect of leakage. An additional point of concern is the possible breakage of tubes as a result of vibration-induced fatigue failures.
Owing to these considerations the shell and tube heat exchanger cannot meet the reliability required e.g. for modern jet engines.
The conventional fin and plate heat exchanger is schematically depicted in
This type of heat exchanger possesses greatly extended surfaces of heat transfer. Its relative efficiency is significantly larger in comparison with the shell and tube heat exchanger, and this produces savings in both volume and weight. For this reason the fin and plate heat exchanger is increasingly used for high pressure applications (e.g. on jet engines to cool oil lubricants by means of high pressure fuel).
The classical fin and plate heat exchanger (
When assembled (
The above described parts of the core assembly constitute its functional elements since each of these has one or more operational functions. For example, parting plates serve for separation of hot and cold flows and also for heat transfer from high-temperature to low-temperature fins, while closure bars and end plates act as flow enclosures.
At the same time, upon assembly and brazing by filler metal 12 (
Brazing filler metal 12 may be used as separate foil elements as shown in
The resulting structure of assembled and brazed core assembly is shown in
It is well known that braze joints have polycrystalline cast structure of lower density and some characteristic micro-defects such as micro-pores, blisters, voids, oxide inclusions which result in bonding imperfections. Such small discontinuity flaws are usually not detectable on a finished new product which successfully passes a routine standard leak test. However, after a certain period of operational use, such micro-defects may develop into more serious imperfections under the influence of differential heat stresses and resulting in internal leakages.
In certain applications such a failure mode may prove particularly critical e.g. in a fuel/oil heat exchanger when the oil becomes contaminated with fuel and its lubricity is impaired hence causing mechanical damage and this could be catastrophic.
The modern requirements for reliability of one failure in 107 or 108 (fleet cumulative) flight hours and operating pressure of working media of thousands of pounds per square inch appear to be non-achievable when using the conventional architecture of the fin and plate heat exchanger. (Note that in the case of a shell and tube heat exchanger, and for reasons mentioned above, such reliability achievement is highly questionable, to say the least.)
It is obvious from
Summarizing the above, it can be stated that a conventional fin and plate heat exchanger suffers from certain drawbacks of which the most salient are possible development of internal leaks and limited strength of joints between fins and parting sheets or end plates. Hence, a conventional fin and plate heat exchanger is limited in terms of reliability and operational pressure.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe purpose of the present invention is the development of a highly effective, lightweight, compact and reliable heat exchanger for high pressure applications capable of preventing internal leakages and mutual mixing of hot and cold flows.
The present invention will be better understood from a consideration of a detailed description of an exemplary embodiment thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
a—before compression;
b—after compression;
The objective is achieved by using a core assembly manufactured in part or in full as a one-piece monolithic metallic block, similar in configuration to a conventional fin-and-plate heat exchanger. In such a structure, the brazing seams, which usually are a source for imperfections and internal leakages, have been eliminated. All the voids in the suggested construction allowing the passage of both the hot and cold flows are obtained by removal of material from a single piece of metal.
The aggregate volume of channels 16 (
Channels 16 and 17 are sub-divided into thin flow channels by fin partitions 18 and 19 respectively. The height and density of the fin partitions in channels 16 and 17 are determined by thermal and hydraulic performance analysis of a heat exchanger, while their thickness is primarily defined by strength considerations.
As shown in
Considering that by the invention, the core assembly features the same functional elements as the classical fin and plate heat exchanger, it also shares the performance advantages of the latter, namely high efficiency and compactness. At the same time, it is devoid of the shortcomings of its predecessor since all abovementioned elements of the core assembly are structurally its integral parts.
The obvious advantages of this embodiment of the invention are the total absence of piece parts for assembly of the core and the absence of braze joints altogether.
Another alternative consisting in the use of individual fins 37 is depicted in
The choice between the two just described alternatives is a function of strength only and depends on the working pressure of the heat exchanger.
By applying individual fins, core burst pressures of exceptionally high magnitudes (and never heard of in conventional fin and plate heat exchanger technology) have been obtained.
The method of elimination of the above described gap of the fin slots in preparation for brazing is shown in
Claims
1. A compact plate and fin heat exchanger
- comprising a core assembly and, welded or attached thereon, two sets of inlet and outlet headers for low temperature and high temperature gas or liquid fluid flows;
- and said core assembly incorporates a plurality of functional elements identified as low temperature and high temperature fins, parting sheets, end plates and low temperature and high temperature closure bars;
- and where the said low temperature and high temperature fins are separated from one another by said parting sheets;
- and where the said low temperature and high temperature fins are enclosed respectively by said low temperature and high temperature closure bars;
- and where the two outermost layers of either the said low temperature fins and/or high temperature fins are enclosed by the said end plates;
- and where the said functional elements constitute a set of elementary heat transfer layers for the said low temperature and high temperature fluid flows;
- and where the said elementary heat transfer layers are disposed alternately along parallel planes in mutually perpendicular directions for low temperature and high temperature fluid flows;
- and where a plurality of the said elementary heat transfer layers for low temperature and high temperature fluid flows together with the said two sets of inlet and outlet headers constitute a confined enclosure for segregated low temperature and high temperature fluid flows;
- wherein the said core is entirely produced from one monolithic metallic block and is entirely devoid of any brazed joints;
- and wherein all the said functional elements of the core, including the low temperature and high temperature fins, form its integral parts;
- and wherein the said low temperature and high temperature fins are formed by a plurality of parallel thin channels cut out from the said block of metal;
2. A compact plate and fin heat exchanger of claim 1, wherein the said core is partially produced from one monolithic metallic block and wherein all the said functional elements of the said core with the exception of the low temperature and high temperature fins are its integral parts; and
- wherein special slots are cut out in parallel planes and alternating in mutually perpendicular directions for alternate introduction of said low temperature and high temperature fin layers for the said low temperature and high temperature fluid flows; and where, in each of the said special slots, two braze filler metal foils are introduced to fully cover both of the fin layer faces; and
- wherein the said fin layers together with the said braze filler foils are snugly fitting into the said special cut slots; and wherein the said low temperature and high temperature snugly fitted fin layer surfaces are brazed to the adjacent surfaces of the said special slots.
3. A compact heat exchanger of claim 2 wherein both sets of the said special slots for low temperature and high temperature fluid flows are fitted with corrugated fins.
4. A compact heat exchanger of claim 2 wherein the said special slots for low temperature and high temperature fluid flows are alternately fitted with corrugated and individual fins.
5. A compact heat exchanger of claim 2 wherein both sets of the said special slots for low temperature and high temperature fluid flows are fitted with individual fins.
Type: Application
Filed: May 3, 2007
Publication Date: Apr 23, 2009
Applicant: TAT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. (Gedera)
Inventors: Shlomo Ostersetzer (Ramat Gan), Avraham Gorodetzky (Kiryat Ono)
Application Number: 11/744,069
International Classification: F28D 7/00 (20060101);