HEAT EXCHANGER AND AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM
This application provides a heat exchanger and an air conditioning system. The heat exchanger includes: a first heat exchanger core comprising a first heat exchange tube having first and second ends; a second heat exchanger core comprising a second heat exchange tube having first and second ends, the first end of the second heat exchange tube being connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the first heat exchange tube; a first manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the first heat exchange tube; a second manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the second heat exchange tube; and a third manifold connected to and in fluid communication with at least one of the first and second manifolds on a refrigerant inlet side and/or a refrigerant outlet side of the heat exchanger; wherein an angular bisector of an angle between the first and second heat exchange tubes extends in a vertical direction, and the third manifold is located on a side of the second heat exchanger core in a horizontal direction and located between projections of the first and second manifolds in the vertical direction or aligned with the first manifold in the vertical direction.
This application claims the priority of Chinese Application No. 202510241232.4 filed on Feb. 28, 2025, and entitled “Heat Exchanger and Air Conditioning System,” the whole disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELDThe present application relates to a heat exchanger and an air conditioning system.
BACKGROUNDParallel flow-type heat exchangers have the advantages of compact structure, high heat exchange efficiency, environmental friendliness, and low refrigerant charge, and are widely used in air conditioning systems. It has always been a research direction in the industry in terms of increasing a heat exchange area of a heat exchanger in a limited space. The conventional microchannel-type heat exchanger usually employs a double-tube structure at an outlet to address the problem about refrigerant flow distribution. However, the double tubes at the outlet of the conventional heat exchanger are arranged along the length direction of a heat exchange tube, which will occupy a large part of the space and reduce the heat exchange area.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a heat exchanger which may effectively increase the heat exchange area without significantly increasing a thickness of the heat exchanger under a condition that an overall height of the heat exchanger is limited.
SUMMARYIn view of the above problems, the present application provides a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger comprises: a first heat exchanger core comprising a first heat exchange tube having a first end and a second end; a second heat exchanger core comprising a second heat exchange tube having a first end and a second end, the first end of the second heat exchange tube being connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the first heat exchange tube; a first manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the first heat exchange tube; a second manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the second heat exchange tube; and a third manifold connected to and in fluid communication with at least one of the first manifold and the second manifold on a refrigerant inlet side and/or a refrigerant outlet side of the heat exchanger; wherein an angular bisector of an angle between the first heat exchange tube and the second heat exchange tube extends in a vertical direction, and the third manifold is located on a side of the second heat exchanger core in a horizontal direction and located between projections of the first manifold and the second manifold in the vertical direction or aligned with the first manifold in the vertical direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, the third manifold is connected to and in fluid communication with the second manifold on the refrigerant outlet side, wherein a connection line extending through a geometric center of a cross section of the third manifold and a geometric center of a cross section of the second manifold forms an angle with respect to the vertical direction, and the cross section of the third manifold is coplanar with the cross section of the second manifold.
According to an aspect of the present application, the angle is greater than 0° and less than 180°.
According to an aspect of the present application, the first heat exchange tube is arranged in parallel with the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, a length of the first heat exchange tube in the vertical direction is less than a length of the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, when the angle is less than 90°, the third manifold is located between the projections of the first manifold and the second manifold in the vertical direction, and the third manifold is closer to the first manifold than the second manifold.
According to an aspect of the present application, when the angle is equal to 90°, the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold in the vertical direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, the third manifold abuts against the first manifold.
According to an aspect of the present application, when the angle is greater than 90°, the third manifold is located between the projections of the first manifold and the second manifold in the vertical direction, and the third manifold is farther away from the first manifold than the second manifold.
According to an aspect of the present application, a length of the first heat exchange tube in the vertical direction is equal to a length of the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, when the angle is equal to 90°, the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold and the second manifold between the first manifold and the second manifold in the horizontal direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, the first heat exchange tube is arranged obliquely relative to the second heat exchange tube.
According to an aspect of the present application, the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold and the second manifold between the first manifold and the second manifold in the horizontal direction.
According to an aspect of the present application, the third manifold comprises: a first segment and a second segment connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold and/or the second manifold; and a connection segment connected with and in fluid communication between the first segment and the second segment.
According to an aspect of the present application, a cross-sectional area of the connection segment is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the first segment and a cross-sectional area of the second segment.
According to an aspect of the present application, each of the first heat exchange tube and the second heat exchange tube is formed by bending a heat exchange tube, or each of the first heat exchanger core and the second heat exchanger core is formed by bending a heat exchanger core.
According to an aspect of the present application, the heat exchanger further comprises a connection portion, through which the first end of the first heat exchange tube of the first heat exchanger core is connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the second heat exchange tube of the second heat exchanger core.
According to an aspect of the present application, the connection portion comprises a connection tube, through which the first end of the first heat exchange tube of the first heat exchanger core is connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the second heat exchange tube of the second heat exchanger core.
According to an aspect of the present application, the first manifold is configured to allow refrigerant to flow into the heat exchanger, and the second manifold is configured to allow the refrigerant to flow out of the heat exchanger.
According to an aspect of the present application, the heat exchanger further comprises: a first fin alternately arranged with the first heat exchange tube; and a second fin alternately arranged with the second heat exchange tube.
According to another aspect of the present application, an air conditioning system is also provided comprising: the heat exchanger according to any one of the above aspects.
According to another aspect of the present application, the second heat exchanger core is arranged upstream of the first heat exchanger core so that air flows through the second heat exchanger core firstly in use.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present application will become more apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present application will be described with reference to the drawings. However, it should be understood that these descriptions are only exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application. In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present application. However, it may be evident that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In addition, in the following description, descriptions of well-known structures and techniques are omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the concepts of the present application.
The terminology used herein is only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments, and is not intended to be limiting of the present application. The terms “comprise”, “include” and the like used herein indicate the existence of the features, steps, operations and/or components, but do not exclude the existence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations or components.
All terms (comprising technical and scientific terms) used herein have meanings commonly understood by those skilled in the art, unless otherwise defined. It should be noted that the terms used herein should be interpreted as having meanings consistent with the context of this specification, and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly rigid manner.
When an expression such as “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, it should generally be interpreted according to the meaning of the expression commonly understood by those skilled in the art (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” should be interpreted as comprising but not being limited to a system having A alone; a system having B alone; a system having C alone; a system having A and B; a system having A and C; a system having B and C; and/or a system having A, B, and C).
Referring to
The first heat exchanger core 1 comprises a plurality of first heat exchange tube 11, each of which comprises a first end and a second end. The second heat exchanger core 2 comprises a plurality of second heat exchange tubes 21, each of which comprises a first end and a second end, the first end of each of the second heat exchange tubes 21 being connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of a corresponding one of the first heat exchange tubes 11. The second heat exchanger core 2 is arranged upstream of the first heat exchanger core 1 so that air flows across the second heat exchanger core 2 firstly (e.g., from right to left in a horizontal direction D1 in
Referring to
The first manifold 13 is connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of each of the plurality of first heat exchange tubes 11, so as to feed the refrigerant into the plurality of first heat exchange tubes 11 of the heat exchanger 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700. In a process of the refrigerant flowing from the plurality of first heat exchange tubes 11 (e.g., on the left in
The second manifold 23 is connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of each of the plurality of second heat exchange tubes 21, so as to convey the refrigerant after heat exchange to outside the heat exchanger 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700. The third manifold 24 is connected to and in fluid communication with at least one of the first manifold 13 and the second manifold 23 through a plurality of small connection tubes 101 on a refrigerant inlet side and/or a refrigerant outlet side of the heat exchanger 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700 (for clarity, only the connection tube 101 is shown in
Although the third manifold 24 is shown as being connected to and in fluid communication with the second manifold 23 for simplicity of description, the present application is not limited thereto. The third manifold 24 may be connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold 13, or two third manifolds 24 may be connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold 13 and the second manifold 23, respectively.
A bending degree of the connection portion 5 defines an angle β between the first heat exchange tube 11 and the second heat exchange tube 21 (see
Referring to
In addition, in the embodiments of the present application as described above, it may also be arranged so that the third manifold 24 is connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold 13, or two third manifolds 24 are connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold 13 and the second manifold 23, respectively. As such, the first segment 241 and the second segment 242 of the third manifold 24 may be connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold 13, or the first segment 241 and the second segment 242 of each of the two third manifolds 24 may be connected to and in fluid communication with a corresponding one of the first manifold 13 and the second manifold 23.
So far, the embodiments of the present application have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the implementations not shown or described in the drawings or the text of the specification are all known to those of ordinary skill in the art and are not described in detail. In addition, the above definition of each of components is not limited to various specific structures, shapes or manners mentioned in the embodiments, and those of ordinary skill in the art may make simple changes or substitutions.
It should also be noted that, in the specific embodiments of the present application, the numerical parameters in this specification and the appended claims are approximate values and may be changed according to the desired characteristics obtained by the content of the present application, unless otherwise specified. In detail, all numbers expressing dimensions, ranges, and so forth used in the specification and the claims are to be understood as being modified in all instances by the term “about.” In general, the expressed meaning of numbers is intended to encompass a variation of ±10% from a specified amount in some embodiments, a variation of ±5% from a specified amount in some embodiments, a variation of ±1% from a specified amount in some embodiments, and a variation of ±0.5% from a specified amount in some embodiments.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various combinations and/or assemblies of features recited in the various embodiments and/or claims of the present application may be made, even if such combinations and/or assemblies are not explicitly recited in the present application. In particular, various combinations and/or assemblies of features described in various embodiments and/or claims of the present application may be made without departing from the spirit and teachings of the present application. All such combinations and/or assemblies fall within the scope of the present application.
The specific embodiments described above provide further detailed explanations of the objects, technical solutions, and beneficial effects of the present application. It should be understood that the above description is only the specific embodiments of the present application and is not intended to limit the present application. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and principles of the present application should fall within the protection scope of the present application.
Claims
1. A heat exchanger, comprising:
- a first heat exchanger core comprising a first heat exchange tube having a first end and a second end;
- a second heat exchanger core comprising a second heat exchange tube having a first end and a second end, the first end of the second heat exchange tube being connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the first heat exchange tube;
- a first manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the first heat exchange tube;
- a second manifold connected to and in fluid communication with the second end of the second heat exchange tube; and
- a third manifold connected to and in fluid communication with at least one of the first manifold and the second manifold on a refrigerant inlet side and/or a refrigerant outlet side of the heat exchanger;
- wherein an angular bisector of an angle between the first heat exchange tube and the second heat exchange tube extends in a vertical direction, and the third manifold is located on a side of the second heat exchanger core in a horizontal direction and located between projections of the first manifold and the second manifold in the vertical direction or aligned with the first manifold in the vertical direction.
2. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein,
- the third manifold is connected to and in fluid communication with the second manifold on the refrigerant outlet side, wherein a connection line extending through a geometric center of a cross section of the third manifold and a geometric center of a cross section of the second manifold forms an angle with respect to the vertical direction, and the cross section of the third manifold is coplanar with the cross section of the second manifold.
3. The heat exchanger according to claim 2, wherein,
- the angle is greater than 0° and less than 180°.
4. The heat exchanger according to claim 3, wherein,
- the first heat exchange tube is arranged in parallel with the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
5. The heat exchanger according to claim 4, wherein,
- a length of the first heat exchange tube in the vertical direction is less than a length of the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
6. (canceled)
7. The heat exchanger according to claim 5, wherein,
- when the angle is equal to 90°, the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold in the vertical direction.
8. The heat exchanger according to claim 7, wherein,
- the third manifold abuts against the first manifold.
9. The heat exchanger according to claim 5, wherein,
- when the angle is greater than 90°, the third manifold is located between the projections of the first manifold and the second manifold in the vertical direction, and the third manifold is farther away from the first manifold than the second manifold.
10. The heat exchanger according to claim 4, wherein,
- a length of the first heat exchange tube in the vertical direction is equal to a length of the second heat exchange tube in the vertical direction.
11. The heat exchanger according to claim 10, wherein,
- when the angle is equal to 90°, the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold and the second manifold between the first manifold and the second manifold in the horizontal direction.
12. The heat exchanger according to claim 3, wherein,
- the first heat exchange tube is arranged obliquely relative to the second heat exchange tube.
13. The heat exchanger according to claim 12, wherein,
- the third manifold is aligned with the first manifold and the second manifold between the first manifold and the second manifold in the horizontal direction.
14. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein the third manifold comprises:
- a first segment and a second segment connected to and in fluid communication with the first manifold and/or the second manifold; and
- a connection segment connected with and in fluid communication between the first segment and the second segment.
15. The heat exchanger according to claim 14, wherein,
- a cross-sectional area of the connection segment is smaller than a cross-sectional area of the first segment and a cross-sectional area of the second segment.
16. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein,
- each of the first heat exchange tube and the second heat exchange tube is formed by bending a heat exchange tube, or each of the first heat exchanger core and the second heat exchanger core is formed by bending a heat exchanger core.
17. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a connection portion, through which the first end of the first heat exchange tube of the first heat exchanger core is connected to and in fluid communication with the first end of the second heat exchange tube of the second heat exchanger core.
18. (canceled)
19. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, wherein,
- the first manifold is configured to allow refrigerant to flow into the heat exchanger, and
- the second manifold is configured to allow the refrigerant to flow out of the heat exchanger.
20. The heat exchanger according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a first fin alternately arranged with the first heat exchange tube; and
- a second fin alternately arranged with the second heat exchange tube.
21. An air conditioning system, comprising:
- the heat exchanger according to claim 1.
22. The air conditioning system according to claim 21, wherein,
- the second heat exchanger core is arranged upstream of the first heat exchanger core so that claim 1 air flows through the second heat exchanger core firstly in use.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 25, 2026
Publication Date: Sep 3, 2026
Inventors: Leilei WANG (Haiyan), Yanxing LI (Nordborg)
Application Number: 19/549,497