Fin Spacing On An Evaporative Atmospheric Water Condenser

Abstract

An improvement in atmospheric evaporative water condenser is disclosed. The apparatus includes tubes through which a refrigerant would pass and a variety of generally rectangular or circular fins are in contact with the tubes which causes the fins to cool. This permits water in its vapor form which exists in atmospheric air to condense on the fins and the condensate is collected as potable water. The improvement includes a plurality of different width spacers which are toleranced to be placed over the tubes and secured in desired positions. The fins are placed between the spacers allowing different fin spacing configurations on the apparatus. The different fin configurations optimize airflow for different coil and fin sections and help prevent water flooding or frost buildup on the fins which impair efficiency. Also, the spacers allow the fins to be placed far enough apart that non-frozen condensate does not block the air flow through the space between the fins.

Description

RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS [0001]This utility patent application claims priority from Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 788,718 filed on Mar. 15, 2013 titled “Fin Spacing on an Evaporative Atmospheric Water Condenser”, Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 789,372 filed on Mar. 15, 2013, titled “Refrigerant Flow Control For an Evaporative Atmospheric Water Condenser”, and Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 831,231 filed on Jun. 5, 2013 titled “Refrigerant Flow Control For an Evaporative Atmospheric Water Condenser” all of which are incorporated herein in their entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Devices which extract water from the atmosphere employ a refrigerant which is pumped through a tortuous pipe with a plurality of fins affixed to the pipe. These fins will cool by action of the refrigerant and water would condense on the fin surface and be collected for use. The efficiency of such devices which remove water from the air is impaired when the water ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004]Currently, evaporators are fabricated with a specified fins per inch characteristic such as 6 fins per inch, 8 fins per inch or 12 fins per inch etc. The current invention is directed to fin spacing where a certain section of the evaporator has (for example) 6 fins per inch and another section 12 fins per inch. In order to have different fin spacing in different portions of the evaporator, spacers are introduced on the evaporator coils that allows changing fin spacing (fins per inch or fins per centimeter). This has the effect of altering the overall heat transfer coefficient of the system. Additionally, it permits a continuous air flow between the fins.

[0009]Properly spaced fins that are optimized for each section of the evaporator are easy to analyze and thus optimize through simulations of computational fluid models. In the approach presented here, the use of fin spacers can also be applied to any fin design.

[0010]To provide the ideal flow regimes and fin surface temperatures at different sections of an evaporator coil, a novel method of fin fabrication is utilized. Although evaporator fins on coils are currently fabricated utilizing different techniques, they share a common modality which would ensure that the fins are tightly attached to the coils so that contact resistance is minimized.

[0012]The invention comprises spacers of different widths which are placed over the coil columns. Different width spacers may be used on different columns in the apparatus. The amount of space between a fin on a single coil column caused by the spacers being intermediate two fins would modulate the heat transfer characteristics in different sections of the coil. To create the variation in spacing between fins, spacers can also be introduced between fin sheets that can vary from section to section of the apparatus. Additionally, different width spacers may be placed on different coil columns. The coil columns are parallel to each other as are the fins. Many fin variations are possible. For instance, in the same apparatus, some fins may still be spaced by the dimple, while others fins may be spaced by a spacer of a first width, and still other fins be spaced by a spacer having a third width. The use of spacers permits fins to be staggered and inter-spaced in the space between the parallel coil columns. Spacers may be used between some of the fins on a first coil while different sized spacers may be used on fins on a second coil, or even a third coil. A large number of fin configurations therefore may be employed, allowing a great variation in the number of different atmospheric water condenser devices.

Problems solved by technology

Fins are used to extend the surface available for heat transfer, and their aspect ratio, material, and attachment to coils affects their effectiveness.

This can be caused by insufficient heat transfer, or insufficient heat transfer prior to air passing over a specific fin, or if the temperature of the fin surface is higher than the dew point temperature of the moist air.

If the water film gets too thick and does not allow enough heat flow, the water layers nearest to the coils may freeze.

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