Evaporator assembly
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Solution Overview
Problem
In refrigeration systems of chiller and heat pump units, high-temperature lubricating oil due to insufficient cooling leads to reduced viscosity and inadequate lubrication, causing reliability issues, and there is a need to cool other fluids like ethylene glycol solutions efficiently.
Innovation Solution
An evaporator assembly is designed with an integrated oil cooler, where refrigerant flows by gravity from the evaporator to cool fluids in the oil cooler, ensuring immediate cooling upon startup and facilitating easy maintenance of oil cooler components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a separate cooling circulation loop is used to cool lubricating oil and other fluids, then cooling reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the evaporator and oil cooler into a single integrated assembly where the oil cooler is positioned inside the evaporator housing. The refrigerant evaporating in the evaporator directly cools the lubricating oil and other fluids in the oil cooler through heat exchange, eliminating the need for a separate cooling circulation loop while maintaining effective cooling functionality.
2Ease of manufacture
If the evaporator and oil cooler are integrated, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but maintenance difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated evaporator-oil cooler assembly is designed as a modular structure where the oil cooler can be independently removed from the evaporator housing. This segmentation allows the oil cooler to be easily extracted for maintenance, repair, or replacement without disturbing the evaporator components, thus maintaining ease of manufacture while improving maintainability.
3Use of energy by moving object
If refrigerant cooling is delayed until system startup, then energy consumption is reduced, but oil temperature control worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated evaporator-oil cooler assembly is pre-filled with refrigerant during manufacturing. When the system starts up, the refrigerant is already present in the evaporator and can immediately begin cooling the lubricating oil and other fluids as they flow through the oil cooler, eliminating temperature control delays without requiring additional energy input.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides reliable and efficient cooling of lubricating oil and other fluids without additional circulation loops, ensuring component reliability and cost-effectiveness by utilizing low-temperature refrigerant from the evaporator, and allowing easy installation and replacement of oil cooler parts.
Implementation Method 1
a refrigerant in the evaporator flowing into the oil cooler by gravity to cool the fluid to be cooled in the oil cooler
Implementation Method 2
at least a portion of a liquid refrigerant accommodated in the evaporator housing can flow into the oil cooler housing via the at least one evaporator housing opening and the at least one corresponding oil cooler housing opening by gravity
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided in the present application is an evaporator assembly, comprising an evaporator and at least one oil cooler. The evaporator comprises an evaporator housing for accommodating a refrigerant. The oil cooler comprises an oil cooler housing and at least one oil cooler heat exchange pipe which is arranged in the oil cooler housing and used for receiving a fluid to be cooled. The evaporator housing comprises at least one evaporator housing opening. The oil cooler housing comprises at least one oil cooler housing opening which is in fluid communication with the at least one corresponding evaporator housing opening. The positions of the evaporator and the oil cooler are configured such that at least a portion of the liquid refrigerant in the evaporator housing can flow into the oil cooler housing via the evaporator housing opening and the corresponding oil cooler housing opening by gravity so as to be used for cooling the fluid to be cooled in the oil cooler heat exchange pipe. In addition, a gaseous refrigerant in the oil cooler housing can also flow back into the evaporator housing via the oil cooler housing opening and the corresponding evaporator housing opening.