HEAT EXCHANGER STRUCTURE WITH FLOW DIVIDER

Abstract

A heat exchanger structure with flow divider includes a heat-conductive main body provided with a flow passage having at least one inner turn and one outer turn, and at least one flow divider located near and downstream the inner turn, such that a cooling liquid in the flow passage flowing through the inner and the outer turn to reach at the flow divider is divided by the flow divider into two smaller flows. Therefore, the cooling liquid in the flow passage has reduced pressure drop and it is not necessary to increase the operating power of a pump that delivers the cooling liquid into the flow passage.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a heat exchanger structure, and more particularly to a heat exchanger with flow divider that effectively reduces the pressure drop of a cooling liquid that changes its flow direction at a turn in the heat exchanger, so that a pump for delivering the cooling liquid into the heat exchanger does not need to increase the operating power thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Following the increasing progress in the electronic information technology, various kinds of electronic apparatus, such as computers, notebook computers, communication chassis and the like, are now highly popular and have very wider applications. However, when these electronic apparatus operate at high speed, electronic elements thereof will produce waste heat. The produced heat must be timely expelled from the electronic apparatus, lest the heat should accumulate in the electronic apparatus to constantly increase the temperature thereof and cause overheating, damage, failure, or low efficiency of the electronic elements.

To improve the above-mentioned heat dissipation problem, one of the most common ways is to mount a cooling fan in the apparatus to forcefully dissipate the produced heat into ambient air. However, the cooling fan can only produce very limited air flow and accordingly fails to enable largely lowered temperature and upgraded heat dissipation effect. Another solution has been suggested to directly attach a water-cooling type heat dissipation device to a heat-producing element, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor unit (MPU), south-bridge and north-bridge chips, and other electronic elements that would produce high amount of heat during operation thereof, and then, use a pump to introduce a cooling liquid from a reservoir into the water-cooling type heat dissipation device, so that the heat transferred from the heat-producing element to the water-cooling heat dissipation device is absorbed by the cooling liquid through heat exchange. Then, the heat-absorbed cooling liquid flows out of the water-cooling heat dissipation device via an outlet thereof to a thermal module and is cooled again before flowing back into the reservoir. By circulating the cooling liquid, it is helpful in lowering the temperature of the heat-producing element, allowing the heat-producing element to operate smoothly.

For the water-cooling type heat dissipation device to effectively achieve the purpose of heat dissipation, a plurality of turns is provided along a flow passage in the device for the cooling liquid to stay in the device over a prolonged time, so that the cooling liquid has increased time for absorbing the heat. The flow passage with a plurality of turns also provides increased contact area with the cooling liquid for sufficient heat exchange.

However, while the flow passage with turns indeed allows the cooling liquid to stay in the water-cooling type heat dissipation device longer, the turns also change the flow direction of the cooling liquid to adversely affect the flowing of the cooling liquid and result in pressure drop of the cooling liquid. At this point, it is necessary to increase the operating power of the pump in order to introduce the same amount of cooling liquid into the flow passage.

Therefore, the conventional water-cooling type heat dissipation device has the following disadvantages: (1) the cooling liquid is subject to the problem of pressure drop; and (2) it is necessary to increase the operating power of the pump to overcome the problem of pressure drop.

It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved heat exchanger structure with flow divider to overcome the problems in the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger structure with flow divider to reduce the pressure drop of a cooling liquid that changes flow direction at a turn in the heat exchanger.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchanger structure with flow divider that does not necessitate a cooling liquid delivering pump to increase the operating power thereof.

To achieve the above and other objects, the heat exchanger structure with flow divider according to the present invention includes a heat-conductive main body provided with a flow passage having at least one inner turn and one outer turn, and at least one flow divider located near and downstream the inner turn, such that a length of the flow passage with the flow divider is divided into at least a first sub-passage and a second sub-passage. Therefore, a cooling liquid in the flow passage flowing through the inner and the outer turn is divided by the flow divider into two parts to separately flow through the first and the second sub-passage. By doing this, the cooling liquid flowing through the inner and the outer turn is subject to only a reduced pressure drop, and it is not necessary to increase the operating power of a pump for delivering the cooling liquid into the flow passage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a heat exchanger structure with flow divider according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an assembled view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an assembled sectional view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view showing the heat exchanger structure of FIG. 1 in use;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an assembled sectional view of a heat exchanger structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an assembled sectional view of a heat exchanger structure according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is an assembled sectional view of a heat exchanger structure according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a heat exchanger structure according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described with some preferred embodiments thereof and with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the purpose of easy to understand, elements that are the same in the preferred embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2 that are exploded and assembled perspective views, respectively, of a heat exchanger structure with flow divider according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; and to FIG. 3 that is assembled sectional view of FIG. 1. For the purpose of conciseness, the present invention is also briefly referred to as “the heat exchanger structure” herein. As shown, the heat exchanger structure in the first embodiment is generally denoted by reference numeral 10, and includes a cover 20 and a heat-conductive main body 30. The cover 20 is assembled to an open top of the main body 30 to close the latter, so as to define a flow passage 31 in the heat exchanger structure 10. The flow passage 31 includes at least one turn 32. In the drawings, there are illustrated two turns 32. At each of the turns 32, there is an inner turn 321 and an outer turn 322. The flow passage 31 has a bottom 33, and a flow divider 34 is provided on the bottom 33 near and downstream the inner turn 321 of each of the turns 32 to extend toward the cover 20. Each of the flow dividers 34, the flow passage 31 and the cover 20 together define at least a first sub-passage 311 and a second sub-passage 312. The first sub-passage 311 has a width larger than that of the second sub-passage 312. The heat-conductive main body 30 is provided at predetermined positions with an inlet 35 and an outlet 36, which separately communicate with two opposite ends of the flow passage 31.

Please refer to FIGS. 4 and 5 at the same time, which show the use of the heat exchanger structure according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the inlet 35 and the outlet 36 are connected to a pump 40 via a first pipe 41 and a second pipe 42, respectively. The pump 40 drives a cooling liquid to flow through the first pipe 41 into the flow passage 31 in the heat-conductive main body 30 via the inlet 35. The cooling liquid flows along the flow passage 31 to pass through the at least one turn 32 between the inner turn 311 and the outer turn 312 thereof and reaches at the flow divider 34 downstream the turn 32. At this point, the cooling liquid is divided by the flow divider 34 into two smaller flows, which separately flow through the first sub-passage 311 and the second sub-passage 312 defined by the flow divider 34 in the flow passage 31. By doing this, the cooling liquid flowing through the turn 32 is subject to only a reduced pressure drop. Therefore, the cooling liquid can maintain at a desired flow rate without the need of increasing the operating power of the pump 40.

FIG. 6 is an assembled sectional view of a heat exchanger structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The second embodiment is generally structurally similar to the first embodiment except that each of the flow dividers 34 is extended from the bottom 33 of the flow passage 31 to contact with the cover 20, so that the cover 20 and the flow divider 34 together define the first sub-passage 311 and the second sub-passage 312 in the flow passage 31 downstream the turn 32. The second embodiment provides the same effect as the first embodiment to reduce the pressure drop of the cooling liquid after passing through the turn 32; so that it is not necessary to increase the operating power of the pump 40 (see FIG. 4).

FIGS. 7 and 8 are assembled sectional views of heat exchanger structures according to a third and a fourth embodiment of the present invention, respectively. The third embodiment is generally structurally similar to the previous embodiments except that each of the flow dividers 34 in the third embodiment is provided on the cover 20 to downward extend into the flow passage 31 to contact with the bottom 33, so as to divide the flow passage 31 into the first and the second sub-passage 311, 312. The fourth embodiment is generally structurally similar to the third embodiment except that each of the flow dividers 34 is downward extended from the cover 20 into the flow passage 31 toward the bottom 33. The third and fourth embodiments provide the same effect as the first and second embodiments to reduce the pressure drop of the cooling liquid after passing through the turn 32; so that it is not necessary to increase the operating power of the pump 40 (see FIG. 4).

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a heat exchanger structure according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. The fifth embodiment is generally structurally similar to the previous embodiments except that an upstream end of each of the flow dividers 34 closer to the turn 32 is formed into a pointed end 341, which allows the cooling liquid to flow into the first sub-passage 311 and the second sub-passage 312 without being interfered. The fifth embodiment provides the same effect as the previous embodiments to reduce the pressure drop of the cooling liquid after passing through the turn 32; so that it is not necessary to increase the operating power of the pump 40 (see FIG. 4).

In brief, the heat exchanger structure with flow divider according to the present invention has the following advantages: (1) the pressure drop of the cooling liquid after passing through the turn is reduced; and (2) it is not necessary to increase the operating power of the pump.

The present invention has been described with some preferred embodiments thereof and it is understood that many changes and modifications in the described embodiments can be carried out without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention that is intended to be limited only by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A heat exchanger structure with flow divider, comprising a heat-conductive main body being provided with at least one flow passage having at least one inner turn and one outer turn; and at least one flow divider being located near and downstream the inner turn, such that a length of the flow passage with the flow divider is divided into at least a first sub-passage and a second sub-passage.

2. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heat-conductive main body is provided at predetermined positions with an inlet and an outlet; and the inlet and the outlet separately communicating with two opposite ends of the flow passage.

3. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a cover for assembling to an open top of the heat-conductive main body to close the latter, so as to complete the flow passage in the heat-conductive main body.

4. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 3, wherein the flow passage has a bottom, on which the at least one flow divider is provided to extend toward the cover, so that the bottom of the flow passage, the flow divider, and the cover together define the first sub-passage and the second sub-passage in the flow passage.

5. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 4, wherein the at least one flow divider is in contact with the cover, so that the bottom of the flow passage, the flow divider, and the cover together define the first sub-passage and the second sub-passage in the flow passage.

6. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 3, wherein the at least one flow divider is provided on the cover to extend downward into the flow passage, so as to define the first sub-passage and the second sub-passage in the flow passage.

7. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 6, wherein the at least one flow divider is in contact with a bottom of the flow passage.

8. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 2, wherein the inlet on the heat-conductive main body is connected to an end of at least a first pipe, which is further connected at another opposite end to a pump; and the pump is further connected to an end of at least a second pipe, which is further connected at another opposite end to the outlet on the heat-conductive main body.

9. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first sub-passage has a width larger than that of the second sub-passage.

10. The heat exchanger structure with flow divider as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flow divider has an upstream end being formed into a pointed end.