Low refrigerant charge microchannel heat exchanger

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10288331-B2
Application number	US-201515504994-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2015
Priority date	Aug 19, 2014
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Grant date	May 14, 2019

Abstract

A heat exchanger is provided including a first manifold, a second manifold separated from the first manifold, and a plurality of heat exchanger tubes arranged in spaced parallel relationship fluidly coupling the first and second manifolds. A first end of each heat exchange tube extends partially into an inner volume of the first manifold and has an inlet formed therein. A distributor is positioned within the inner volume of the first manifold. At least a portion of the distributor is arranged within the inlet formed in the first end of one or more of the plurality of heat exchange tubes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A heat exchanger comprising:
a first manifold;
a second manifold separated from the first manifold;
a plurality of heat exchanger tubes arranged in spaced parallel relationship and fluidly coupling the first manifold and the second manifold, a first end of each of the plurality of heat exchanger tubes extends partially into an inner volume of the first manifold and has a nonplanar inlet formed therein; and
a distributor positioned within the inner volume of the first manifold, at least a portion of the distributor being arranged within the inlet formed in the first end of one or more of the plurality of heat exchange tubes, wherein a contour of the inlet formed in the first end of each of the plurality of heat exchanger tubes is complementary to a contour of the portion of the distributor arranged within the inlet.

2. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the first manifold is asymmetric about a central horizontal plane extending there through, the horizontal plane being oriented substantially perpendicular to the plurality of heat exchange tubes.

3. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the inlet formed in the first end is generally complementary to a contour of the distributor.

4. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the inlet extends over only a portion of a width of the heat exchanger tube.

5. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the distributor occupies between 20% and 60% of the inner volume of the first manifold.

6. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein a porous structure is arranged within the inner volume of the manifold.

7. The heat exchanger according to claim 6 , wherein the distributor is arranged within the porous structure.

8. The heat exchanger according to claim 6 , wherein the porous structure has a porosity between 30% and 70%.

9. The heat exchanger according to claim 8 , wherein the porosity of the porous structure is non-uniform.

10. The heat exchanger according to claim 8 , wherein the porosity of the porous structure changes uniformly along the length of the first manifold.

11. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , wherein the first manifold is one of an inlet manifold and an intermediate manifold.

12. The heat exchanger according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one spacer positioned adjacent the distributor, the at least one spacer being configured to set a position of the distributor within the inner volume of the first manifold.

13. The heat exchanger of claim 12 , wherein the at least one spaced includes a plurality of spacers is configured to contact at least one of the plurality of heat exchanger tubes.

14. The heat exchanger of claim 12 , wherein the spacer is configured to contact a portion of the first manifold inner wall.

15. The heat exchanger of claim 12 , wherein the spacer includes a plurality of protrusions extending over at least a portion of a length of the distributor.

16. The heat exchanger of claim 1 , wherein the distributor further comprises a groove formed in an exterior surface thereof, wherein the groove and an interior wall of the first manifold form a flow passage between a first manifold section and a second manifold section.

17. The heat exchanger according to claim 16 , wherein the groove is configured such that a fluid flowing through the groove is not directly injected into any of the plurality of heat exchanger tubes.

18. The heat exchanger according to claim 16 , wherein the flow direction imparted to a fluid flowing through the groove is not parallel with one or more of the plurality of heat exchanger tubes.

19. The heat exchanger according to claim 16 , wherein the groove comprises a plurality of grooves and a total cross-sectional flow area of the plurality of grooves is less than a cross-sectional flow area of the first manifold.

Assignees

• Carrier Corp

Inventors

• Taras Michael F
• Sienel Tobias H
• Saito Kazuo
• Joardar Arindom
• Poplawski Bruce J

Classifications

• F28D1/05383

  with multiple rows of conduits or with multi-channel conduits (F28D1/05391 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F28D1/05391

  with multiple rows of conduits or with multi-channel conduits combined with a particular flow pattern, e.g. multi-row multi-stage radiators · CPC title

• F25B39/028 Primary

  having distributing means · CPC title

• F28F2009/0285

  Other particular headers or end plates · CPC title

• F28F1/025

  with variable shape, e.g. with modified tube ends, with different geometrical features (F28F1/06, F28F1/08, F28F9/16, F28F9/18 take precedence) · CPC title