Abstract: A condenser made of concrete for an axial exhaust turbine, the condenser being carried on a concrete raft and including a plurality of superposed bundles of heat exchange tubes, wherein the condenser includes end vertical tube plates connected via flexible seals to the walls of the condenser and intermediate vertical tube plates, said tube plates being secured to one another by ties and supporting the tubes of the bundles so that they are free to expand, the intermediate plates adjacent to the end plates being carried by internal steel support brackets that are fixed to the walls of the condenser. The bundles of heat exchanger tubes are easily mounted and maintenance thereof is facilitated.

Abstract: A heat exchanger for use in applications with high temperatures and rapidly changing thermal gradients. The heat exchanger has a shell, a head, a tubesheet, a tubesheet skirt, and a tube bundle. The tubesheet has a peripheral diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the interior of the head and is coupled to the head by the tubesheet skirt. The gap between the tubesheet and the head is sufficient to allow the removal of the tubesheet from the head after the tubesheet suffers typical thermal deformation. In a preferred embodiment, the head defines a chamber having a combined spherical-cylindrical geometry.