WATER-COOLED CONDENSER

Abstract

Provided is a water-cooled condenser of which the size is reduced by a simple structure and the cooling efficiency is improved, in which a main heat-dissipating unit where a coolant discharged from a compressor exchanges heat with cooling water and a supercooling core unit where a coolant discharged from a receiver drier exchanges heat with cooling water have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, a second cooling water inflow pipe, which allows the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, diverges from a first cooling water inflow pipe that allows the cooling water to flow into the main heat-dissipating unit, and the cooling water flowing in the supercooling core unit is discharged with the cooling water in the main heat-dissipating unit, through an internal connecting line.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application Number 10-2010-0122874 filed Dec. 3, 2010, the entire contents of which application is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a water-cooled condenser, and more particularly, to a water-cooled condenser in which a main heat-dissipating core unit and a supercooling core unit have separate cooling circuits and are integrally mounted and cooling water simultaneously flows into the main heat-dissipating core unit and the supercooling core unit and then joins to be discharged.

2. Description of Related Art

In general, condensers are devices that condense and liquefy a high-temperature and high-pressure gas coolant discharged from a compressor by dissipating the heat of the gas coolant to the air and/or cooling water and classified into an air-cooled condenser and a water-cooled condenser in accordance with the cooling type.

Air-cooled condensers used for vehicles are cooled by cooling wind that flows inside through a bumper or a radiator grill at the front of an engine room; however, the system configuration is relatively simple, whereas the cooling efficiency is unsatisfactory.

The water-cooled condensers have been increasingly developed because although the structure is complicated in comparison to the air-cooled condenser, due to an electric water pump, a reservoir tank, and a low-temperature radiator, the cooling efficiency is higher than the air-cooled condensers.

A structure of a water-cooled condenser has been known, which includes a separate type heat exchanger composed of a main heat-dissipating core unit that exchanges heat with a wet vapor coolant and a supercooling core unit that exchanges heat with a liquid coolant, which are separated. In the heat exchanger, a coolant and cooling water flow into the main heat-dissipating unit and exchange heat, the coolant that has exchanged heat in the main heat-dissipating unit flows into a receiver drier in which the coolant is separated into gas and liquid and then flows separately into the supercooling core unit, while the cooling water is discharged outside from the main heat-dissipating unit, and specific cooling water also flows into the supercooling core unit, exchanges heat with the coolant in the supercooling core unit, and is then discharged out of the supercooling core unit.

Further, another structure has been proposed in which a main heat-dissipating unit and a supercooling core unit have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, a coolant flows into the main heat-dissipating unit and is then discharged outside from the supercooling core unit after passing a receiver drier, and cooling water flows into the main heat dissipating unit and is then discharged outside through the supercooling core unit.

The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Various aspects of the present invention provide for a water-cooled condenser of which the size is small due to a simple structure and the cooling efficiency is improved.

An aspect of the present invention provides a water-cooled condenser, in which a main heat-dissipating unit where a coolant discharged from a compressor exchanges heat with cooling water and a supercooling core unit where a coolant discharged from a receiver drier exchanges heat with cooling water have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, a second cooling water inflow pipe, which allows the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, diverges from a first cooling water inflow pipe that allows the cooling water to flow into the main heat-dissipating unit, and the cooling water flowing in the supercooling core unit is mixed with the cooling water in the main heat-dissipating unit through an internal connecting line and then discharged.

Cooling water inlet and outlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and cooling water inlet of the supercooling core unit may be disposed at one side of the integrated unit, and a coolant inlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and a coolant outlet of the supercooling core unit may be disposed at the other side of the integrated unit.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a water-cooled condenser, in which a main heat-dissipating unit where a coolant discharged from a compressor exchanges heat with cooling water and a supercooling core unit where a coolant discharged from a receiver drier exchanges heat with cooling water have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, a second cooling water inflow pipe, which allows the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, diverges from a first cooling water inflow pipe that allows the cooling water to flow into the main heat-dissipating unit, and a second cooling water outflow pipe of the supercooling core unit is connected to a first cooling water outflow pipe of the main heat-dissipating unit.

According to various aspects of the present invention, since the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, the structure becomes simple and the size is reduced, which is advantageous in terms of layout. Further, the cooling water discharged from a radiator separately flows into the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit, such that flow resistance of the cooling water decreases, and accordingly the flow rate increases and the cooling efficiency is improved.

The methods and apparatuses of the present invention have other features and advantages which will be apparent from or are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, and the following Detailed Description, which together serve to explain certain principles of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a cooling circuit and the structure of an exemplary water-cooled condenser according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a cooling circuit and the structure of an exemplary water-cooled condenser according to of the present invention.

It should be understood that the appended drawings are not necessarily to scale, presenting a somewhat simplified representation of various features illustrative of the basic principles of the invention. The specific design features of the present invention as disclosed herein, including, for example, specific dimensions, orientations, locations, and shapes will be determined in part by the particular intended application and use environment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments of the present invention(s), examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and described below. While the invention(s) will be described in conjunction with exemplary embodiments, it will be understood that present description is not intended to limit the invention(s) to those exemplary embodiments. On the contrary, the invention(s) is/are intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

FIG. 1 shows the structure and a circuit of a water-cooled condenser according to various embodiments of the present invention, in which an outlet of a main heat-dissipating core unit 1, which is connected with a compressor and dissipates the heat of a high-temperature and high-pressure wet vapor coolant discharged from the compressor, communicates with an inlet of a receiver drier 2 through a first connecting pipe 3, such that a coolant that has exchanged heat with cooling water in main heat-dissipating unit 1 flows to the inlet of receiver drier 2 through the outlet and first connecting pipe 3 and is separated into gas and liquid in receive drier 2.

The outlet of receiver drier 2 is connected with the inlet of supercooling core unit 5 through a second connecting pipe 4, such that the coolant that has been separated into gas and liquid in the receiver drier flows into the supercooling core unit through second connecting pipe 5 and the inlet of supercooling core unit 5 and exchanges heat with the cooling water.

Receiver drier 2 may be integrated with main heat-dissipating unit 1 and supercooling core unit 5 in one unit, or may be separately provided.

Since main heat-dissipating unit 1 and supercooling core unit 5 have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit, the structure is simple and the size is small.

Further, a cooling water inflow pipe 6 that allows the cooling water to flow into main heat-dissipating unit 1 and supercooling core unit 5 through different channels is provided, such that cooling water that has been cooled through a low-temperature radiator flows into the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit through the cooling water inflow pipe and exchanges heat with the coolant.

Cooling water inflow pipe 6 has a second cooling water inflow pipe 6b diverging from a first cooling water inflow pipe 6a, which allows cooling water to flow into main heat-dissipating core unit 1, to allow the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, such that it has a T-shape or a Y-shape.

Since the cooling water flows into the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit through separate channels and exchanges heat with the coolant, flow resistance of the cooling water is reduced and the cooling performance is also improved.

Meanwhile, the cooling water that has flowed into supercooling core unit 5 and main heat-dissipating unit 1 is discharged through a cooling water outflow pipe 7 connected to main heat-dissipating unit 1. A connecting line 7a that connects the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling unit is disposed across the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit such that the cooing water flowing in supercooling core unit 5 moves up to main heat-dissipating unit 1 and is then mixed and discharged with the cooling water in the main heat-dissipating unit.

Further, the coolant inlet of main heat-dissipating unit 1 and the coolant outlet of supercooling core unit 5 are arranged opposite to the cooling water inlet and outlet.

FIG. 2 shows the structure and a circuit of a water-cooled condenser according to various embodiments of the present invention, in which the configuration of a cooling water outlet pipe 17 is different from that described above and the other configurations are the same.

That is, cooling water outlet pipe 17 is composed of a first cooling water outlet pipe 17a allowing cooling water to be discharged from main heat-dissipating unit 1 and a second cooling water outlet pipe 17b allowing cooling water to be discharged from supercooling core unit 5, in which the first and second cooling water outlet pipes are separate parts combined with each other.

Since main heat-dissipating core unit 1 and supercooling core unit 5 have separate cooling circuit and are integrated in one unit in the illustrated embodiment, the structure is simple and the size is reduced. Further, the cooling water separately flows into the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit through the cooling water inlet pipe and the cooling water outlet pipe, such that flow resistance of the cooling water is reduced by heat exchange of the coolant and the cooling efficiency is correspondingly improved.

For convenience in explanation and accurate definition in the appended claims, the terms front, inside or outside, and etc. are used to describe features of the exemplary embodiments with reference to the positions of such features as displayed in the figures.

The foregoing descriptions of specific exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The exemplary embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain certain principles of the invention and their practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to make and utilize various exemplary embodiments of the present invention, as well as various alternatives and modifications thereof. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the Claims appended hereto and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A water-cooled condenser comprising:

a main heat-dissipating unit where a coolant discharged from a compressor exchanges heat with cooling water; and

a supercooling core unit where a coolant discharged from a receiver drier exchanges heat with cooling water have separate cooling circuits, wherein the main heat-dissipating unit and the supercooling core unit are integrated in one unit;

wherein a second cooling water inflow pipe, which allows the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, diverges from a first cooling water inflow pipe that allows the cooling water to flow into the main heat-dissipating unit; and

wherein the cooling water flowing in the supercooling core unit is mixed and discharged with the cooling water in the main heat-dissipating unit, through an internal connecting line.

2. The water-cooled condenser as defined in claim 1, wherein a cooling water inlet and a cooling water outlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and a cooling water inlet of the supercooling core unit are disposed at one side of the integrated unit, and

a coolant inlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and a coolant outlet of the supercooling core unit are disposed on another side of the integrated unit.

3. A water-cooled condenser comprising:

a main heat-dissipating unit where a coolant discharged from a compressor exchanges heat with cooling water; and

a supercooling core unit where a coolant discharged from a receiver drier exchanges heat with cooling water have separate cooling circuits and are integrated in one unit;

wherein a second cooling water inflow pipe, which allows the cooling water to flow into the supercooling core unit, diverges from a first cooling water inflow pipe that allows the cooling water to flow into the main heat-dissipating unit, and

wherein a second cooling water outflow pipe of the supercooling core unit is connected to a first cooling water outflow pipe of the main heat-dissipating unit.

4. The water-cooled condenser as defined in claim 3, wherein a cooling water inlet and a cooling water outlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and a cooling water inlet of the supercooling core unit are disposed at one side of the integrated unit, and

a coolant inlet of the main heat-dissipating unit and a coolant outlet of the supercooling core unit are disposed at the other side of the integrated unit.