Evaporator Cuff Baffles for Large Pipe Freezing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional portable pipe freezer systems are unable to effectively freeze large diameter pipes due to insufficient heat removal, requiring costly two-stage cooling systems or hazardous substances like liquid nitrogen, and struggle with maintaining consistent low temperatures.
Innovation Solution
A pipe freezer system featuring a novel evaporator cuff design with baffles and a flow distributor that channels refrigerant efficiently through a serpentine path, allowing for the use of conventional refrigerants to achieve temperatures below -55°C, and a flow distributor to minimize temperature differentials between evaporator cuffs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional portable condensers are used to cool large diameter pipes, then the system is simple and cost-effective, but the temperature cannot reach -55°C or lower required for freezing
Solution Approach 1:
The evaporator is divided into multiple independent serpentine circuits (first circuit, second circuit, third circuit) with each circuit having its own flow distributor. This segmentation allows each circuit to independently achieve the required -55°C temperature while using a single conventional portable condenser, avoiding the need for complex two-stage cooling systems.
Solution Approach 2:
Flow distributors are installed at the inlet of each serpentine circuit to locally optimize refrigerant distribution. This ensures uniform refrigerant flow and heat transfer across different sections of the evaporator, enabling each local circuit to efficiently reach the target temperature using conventional cooling capacity.
2Temperature
If liquid nitrogen or CO2 is used to freeze large diameter pipes, then the required temperature can be achieved, but the system becomes hazardous and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses conventional refrigerants in a single-stage evaporator design that can achieve -55°C through optimized serpentine circuits and flow distributors. This replaces expensive and hazardous cryogenic substances like liquid nitrogen with safer, more economical conventional refrigerants while maintaining the required freezing temperature.
3Stability of the object's composition
If refrigerant flow is not evenly distributed in the evaporator, then the system is simple, but temperature differentials between evaporator sections cause inconsistent freezing
Solution Approach 1:
Flow distributors are designed to change the flow parameters of refrigerant by creating multiple outlet ports that distribute refrigerant evenly across different serpentine circuits. This parameter optimization ensures uniform temperature distribution throughout the evaporator, achieving consistent freezing across the entire pipe surface.
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 system effectively freezes large diameter pipes by achieving temperatures of -70°F (-55°C) or lower using conventional refrigerants, reducing costs and complexity, and minimizing temperature variations between cuffs to ensure consistent ice plug formation.
Implementation Method 1
The refrigerant causes the evaporator heads to freeze the pipe where they are in contact
Implementation Method 2
By freezing the fluid in the pipe, it is possible to block the fluid in the section of pipe of interest by creating an ice plug
Implementation Method 3
The refrigerant causes the evaporator heads to freeze the pipe where they are in contact
Implementation Method 4
the volume of water in such large diameter pipes did not allow for a sufficient removal of heat energy to cause freezing of the liquid
Data Source
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AI summary
An evaporator cuff for use with a pipe freezer apparatus. The evaporator cuff includes a hose connector attached to an evaporator body. The evaporator body has an inner wall configured to engage the outer surface of a pipe, and an outer wall spaced apart from the inner wall. A chamber is defined between the inner and outer walls, first and second side walls, and first and second end walls. A plurality of baffles are located in the chamber and arranged to define a series of conduits for creating a flow path through the chamber for refrigerant to flow along. The walls are arranged so as to form a serpentine flow path from the evaporator inlet to the evaporator outlet.