Patent Application
20250052503
Conventionally, heat exchangers are widely used in refrigeration applications. The heat exchanger typically consists of multiple tubes, fins and two manifolds. A refrigerant flows inside the tubes while outside air passes over the fins. For efficiency, heat exchangers are designed to maximize the surface area of the wall between the two fluids, while minimizing resistance to fluid flow through the exchanger.
Generally, these refrigeration applications require a considerable amount of energy. Many design improvements and refinements have focused on improving the design of the fins and surfaces for exchanging beat between the cooling air and the refrigerant. It is also advantageous to provide design improvements to the multiple tubes through which the refrigerant flows. To accomplish improved minimization of flow resistance and improved heat exchange, microchannel tubes have been used but often not in the most effective manner. Accordingly, improvements to conventional microchannel designs may be advantageous.
An exemplary embodiment relates to a heat exchanger tube. The heat exchanger tube includes a tube formed substantially of a heat conducting material, the tube being defined by a length, a height, and a width. The heat exchanger tube also includes at least one conduit formed within the tube and extending the length of the tube, the conduit defining an inlet at one end of the tube and the conduit defining an outlet at the opposite end of the tube, the conduit having a cross-section defined within the height and width of the tube, the cross-section having an oscillating geometry.
Another exemplary embodiment relates to a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger includes more than one tube formed substantially of a heat conducting material, each tube being defined by a length, a height, and a width, each tube having an inlet end and an outlet end. The heat exchanger also includes at least one conduit formed within each tube and extending the length of each tube, the conduit defining an inlet at one end of each tube and the conduit defining an outlet at the opposite end of each tube, the conduit having a cross-section defined within the height and width of each tube, the cross-section having an oscillating geometry. Further, the heat exchanger includes an inlet manifold fluidly coupled to each of the inlet ends of the more than one tubes and configured to receive a fluid. Further still, the heat exchanger includes an outlet manifold fluidly coupled to each of the outlet ends of the more than one tubes. Yet further still, the heat exchanger includes heat conducting structures conductively coupled to the more than one tubes.
In addition to the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the disclosure set forth herein. The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain simplifications, generalizations, inclusions, and/or omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is NOT intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, features, and advantages of the devices and/or processes and/or other subject matter described herein will become apparent in the disclosures set forth herein.
The use of the same symbols in different drawings typically indicates similar or identical items unless context dictates otherwise.
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In accordance with exemplary embodiments a heat exchanger may be configured with tubes, such as but not limited to tubes 100-400 having microchannel conduits or channels 110-410. A microchannel heat exchanger is characterized by having fluid conduits or channels with a high aspect ratio, small hydraulic diameter. Such microchannel heat exchangers may be applied in any of a variety of applications including but not limited to cooling integrated circuits, solid-state lasers, computer servers, data centers, and the like. Microchannels have been understood since the early 1980s.
One of the advantages of using the microchannel structures is that turbulent flow within the channels is not necessary to increase heat transfer efficiency. Microchannel structures neither require nor create turbulent flow. Conventional macrochannels require turbulence to increase heat transfer rate, otherwise the fluid acts as an insulator between the channel wall and the center of the fluid flow, which is known as a thermal boundary layer. Turbulent flow within the fluid channel mixes the fluid next to the wall of the channel with the fluid in the middle of the channel, thereby minimizing the thickness of the thermal boundary layer and maximizing the rate of heat transfer between the fluid and the wall. However, such turbulence and mixing require high flow velocities and high pressures. Microchannels, instead, have the advantage that the heat transfer coefficient “h” is inversely proportional to the width of the channel. As “h” increases, efficiency increases. A very narrow channel has a thin thermal boundary layer, because the boundary layer cannot be larger than ½ the channel width. Thus, heat is transferred between the wall and the center of the channel with very little thermal resistance.
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In some instances, one or more components may be referred to herein as “configured to,” “configured by,” “configurable to,” “operable/operative to,” “adapted/adaptable,” “able to,” “conformable/conformed to,” etc. Those skilled in the art will recognize that such terms (e.g., “configured to”) generally encompass active-state components and/or inactive-state components and/or standby-state components, unless context requires otherwise.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from the subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of the subject matter described herein. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to claims containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g. “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together. B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that typically a disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms unless context dictates otherwise. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be typically understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
With respect to the appended claims, those skilled in the art will appreciate that recited operations therein may generally be performed in any order. Also, although various operational flows are presented in a sequence(s), it should be understood that the various operations may be performed in other orders than those which are illustrated or may be performed concurrently. Examples of such alternate orderings may include overlapping, interleaved, interrupted, reordered, incremental, preparatory, supplemental, simultaneous, reverse, or other variant orderings, unless context dictates otherwise. Furthermore, terms like “responsive to,” “related to,” or other past-tense adjectives are generally not intended to exclude such variants, unless context dictates otherwise.
