Spiral heat exchanger

Abstract

A spiral heat exchanger includes two assembled covers defining a chamber therebetween for receiving a spiral unit therein. The spiral unit includes a first and a second spiral member separately spirally extending from a central outlet to a peripheral outlet on the two covers to respectively form a first and a second flow passage. A driving unit is assembled to and drives the assembled covers to rotate at the same time, so that cold and hot airflows respectively enter and flow through the first and second spiral members from the central outlet to the peripheral outlet under a centrifugal force to exchange heat at the spiral unit. The spiral unit provides extended flow passages and increased heat exchange area, giving the spiral heat exchanger increased heat transfer capacity and heat exchange efficiency and allowing omission of fans and radiating fin assembly to eliminate operating noise and accumulated dust.

Description

[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan patent application number 099101501 filed on Jan. 20, 2010.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a heat exchanger, and more particularly to a spiral heat exchanger that includes an internal spiral unit to provided effectively extended heat exchange flow passages, and, when being driven to rotate, uses a centrifugal force to establish a flow field of cold and hot fluids in the heat exchanger without the need of using a conventional thermal module with fan and radiating fin assembly, and can accordingly, avoid the problems of noise caused by rotating fan blades and accumulated dust in the radiating fin assembly.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Thanks to the constant progress in the electronic information technologies, various kinds of electronic devices, such as desktop computers, notebook computers, communication chesses, electric home appliances, industrial electronic apparatus, etc., have become hig...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]A primary object of the present invention is to provide a spiral heat exchanger that includes a spiral unit to enable increased heat transfer capacity and extended heat exchange flow passages. The spiral heat exchanger, when being driven to rotate, utilizes a centrifugal force to establish a flow field therein for cold and hot fluids flowing therethrough to exchange heat. Due to the extended heat exchange flow passages and accordingly, increased heat exchange area, the spiral heat exchanger does not require any conventional thermal module with fan and radiating fin assembly and can therefore avoid the problems of fan operating noise and accumulated dust in the radiating fins.

[0012]Another object of the present invention is to provide a spiral heat exchanger that is driven by a driving unit to rotate, and includes a spiral unit provided with at least one type of heat transfer enhancing means, such as surface ribs, dimples, pin-fins, helical wires, and twisted tapes. Therefore, when the spiral heat exchanger rotates, the cold and hot airflows under a centrifugal force can flow through the spiral unit and the heat transfer enhancing means thereof from an inner side to an outer side of the spiral unit to effectively utilize the heat exchange between cold and hot air and achieve high heat exchange efficiency.

[0014]A still further object of the present invention is to provide a spiral heat exchanger that includes a spiral unit and utilizes first and second turbulence generating units to generate eddies in the cold and hot airflows flowing through the spiral unit, so that the cold and hot airflows can effectively exchange heat at the spiral unit at increased heat exchange efficiency.

[0016]To achieve the above and other objects, the spiral heat exchanger according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention mainly includes a first cover, a second cover, a spiral unit, and a driving unit. The first cover has at least one first inlet, at least one first outlet, and at least one first turbulence generating unit. The first inlet is a through hole arranged at a central area of the first cover, and the first outlet is a through hole arranged near an outer peripheral area of the first cover. The second cover is assembled to the first cover to define a chamber in between the first and the second cover. The second cover has at least one second inlet, at least one second outlet, and at least one second turbulence generating unit. The second inlet is a through hole arranged at a central area of the second cover, and the second outlet is also a through hole arranged near an outer peripheral area of the second cover. The spiral unit is arranged in the chamber and includes a first and a second spiral member. The first spiral member is spirally extended from the first inlet in a radially outward direction to the first outlet to form a first flow passage communicating with the first inlet and the first outlet, and the second spiral member is spirally extended from the second inlet in a radially outward direction to the second outlet to form a second flow passage communicating with the second inlet and the second outlet. The first flow passage and the second flow passage are adjacent to each other. The driving unit is provided with a shaft and a connecting element connected to a distal end of the shaft. The driving unit is assembled to one of the first cover and the second cover via the connecting element, so as to drive the first and the second cover to rotate at the same time. First airflow and second airflow surrounding the spiral heat exchanger can enter the first and the second spiral member, respectively, when the spiral heat exchanger is driven by the driving unit to rotate, and to exchange heat at the spiral unit. Meanwhile, when the first and the second airflow flow through the first and the second spiral member, respectively, the first and the second turbulence generating unit can generate eddies whirling in directions opposite to the flow directions of the first and the second airflow. With these arrangements, the spiral heat exchanger can have largely increased heat transfer capacity and extended heat exchange flow passages to effectively upgrade the heat exchange efficiency thereof.

Problems solved by technology

However, electronic elements in these electronic devices will produce high amount of waste heat when they operate at high speed.

The waste heat, if not timely removed, tends to accumulate in the electronic devices and results in constantly raised temperature in the electronic devices and the electronic element thereof.

In worse conditions, the accumulated waste heat will cause overheat of the electronic elements and accordingly, failure, damage, or lowered operating efficiency thereof.

Further, the plate-type heat exchanger 1 provides only one-way flow passages 14 and limited heat exchange area, and therefore has apparently low heat exchange efficiency and low heat transfer effect.

Accordingly, the heat dissipation effect provided by the plate-type heat exchanger 1 is not ideal.

This type of heat exchanger has the problems of producing noise when the fan blades rotate and having accumulated dust on the radiating fin assembly when the latter has been used over a long period of time.

In brief, the conventional heat exchangers have the following disadvantages: (1) the flow passages for heat exchange have limited length to result in poor heat transfer effect; (2) the fluid medium does not distribute evenly in the heat exchanger to result in poor heat transfer effect; (3) the heat exchange efficiency is poor; (4) the heat dissipation effect is poor; (5) the fan blades produce noise when rotating; and (6) the radiating fin assembly tends to become dirty after having been used over a long time.

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