Compact heat exchanger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10112271-B2
Application number	US-201514669202-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2015
Priority date	Mar 26, 2015
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

A compact heat exchanger is provided and includes a first manifold defining an inlet for receiving from a component a fluid to be cooled and an outlet for returning the cooled fluid to the component to cool the component. A second manifold is disposed spaced from the first manifold. A core extends between and fluidly communicates with the manifolds and includes hexagonal channels. Each channel is formed by mini-tubes defining respective triangular passages. A cross-section of the core defines an irregular-cross structure. The fluid enters the inlet of the first manifold, makes a first pass through the mini-tubes to the second manifold, makes a second pass through the mini-tubes to the first manifold such that the fluid is cooled across the mini-tubes, exits the first manifold through the outlet, and returns to the component to cool the component. A method of manufacturing the heat exchanger is provided also.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A heat exchanger comprising:
a first manifold defining an inlet configured to receive from a component a fluid to be cooled and an outlet configured to return the cooled fluid to the component to cool the component;
a second manifold disposed spaced from the first manifold; and
a core extending between and fluidly communicating with the first and second manifolds and including a plurality of channels, each of the plurality of channels has a generally hexagonal cross-section and is formed by six adjoining mini-tubes defining respective passages each of which is of generally triangular cross-section, the generally hexagonal cross-section of each of the plurality of channels being similar to one another, a cross-section of the core defining an irregular-cross structure and the fluid being configured to enter the inlet of the first manifold, make a first pass through the mini-tubes to the second manifold, make a second pass through the mini-tubes to the first manifold such that the fluid is cooled across the mini-tubes, exit the first manifold through the outlet, and return to the component to cool the component.

2. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the cross-section of each of the mini-tubes defines an isosceles triangle.

3. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the core includes a plurality of adjoining rows of the mini-tubes and each row includes a plurality of adjoining mini-tubes.

4. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 3 , wherein the core includes four adjoining rows of the mini-tubes, the mini-tubes are the same size with respect to each other, and the number of mini-tubes in each row is odd.

5. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 4 , wherein each of top and bottom rows includes three mini-tubes and each of a pair of middle rows includes nine mini-tubes.

6. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 3 , wherein adjacent mini-tubes in each row alternate their respective orientations with respect to each other between upright and inverted.

7. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 3 , wherein each row defines an upright or inverted trapezoidal cross-section.

8. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 3 , wherein locations of respective flows of the fluids in corresponding mini-tubes alternate in each row with consecutive passages such that two adjacent flows of cooled fluids are located only diagonal with each other.

9. The heat exchanger as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the six adjoining mini-tubes of each channel meet at a midpoint of the channel and shared interior sides of the respective mini-tubes extend from the midpoint to corresponding exterior corners of the channel.

Assignees

• Hamilton Sundstrand Corp

Inventors

• Veilleux Jr Leo J
• Ribarov Lubomir A

Classifications

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• Y02P10/295

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B22F5/106

  Tube or ring forms · CPC title

• B33Y80/00

  Products made by additive manufacturing · CPC title

• F28F1/04

  polygonal, e.g. rectangular {(F28F1/022 takes precedence)} · CPC title