Heater-cooler Panel with Segmented Half-shells for Fast Thermal Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heating and cooling panels have inefficiencies due to high water content, slow control response, and limited heat output, which can be improved by optimizing the wetted surface area and air cross-section while maintaining the panel's shape and construction.
Innovation Solution
The design features half-shells with elevations and depressions that create a thin flow path for the heat transfer fluid, ensuring almost complete wetting of inner surfaces for enhanced heat transfer, reduced fluid content, and a variable structure that allows for optimized flow characteristics and stability, with connecting knobs and spacers for cohesion and support.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If conventional panel designs are used with larger fluid content, then the panel structure is simpler and more stable, but the control response speed is slow and heat output is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The panel is divided into two separate half-shells that are connected, creating a segmented fluid pathway. This segmentation allows the fluid to flow through a more optimized path with larger wetted surfaces, improving heat transfer efficiency and control response without requiring a complete redesign of the entire panel structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a third dimension by creating elevations and depressions that extend into the flow path from both half-shells. This dimensional addition increases the wetted surface area and optimizes the fluid flow path, enabling faster control response and improved heat output while managing fluid content efficiently.
2Productivity
If the wetted surface area is increased to improve heat output, then the heat transfer efficiency increases, but the panel complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The elevations and depressions from both half-shells are merged together to form the complete flow path structure. This merging approach allows the complex wetted surface geometry to be achieved by combining two simpler half-shell components, each with complementary features that together create the optimized heat transfer surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the panel have different structural characteristics - the half-shells have elevations and depressions in specific locations to maximize wetted surface area where heat transfer is most effective, while other regions maintain simpler structures for structural support and manufacturing ease.
3Quantity of substance
If the flow path is made thinner to reduce fluid content, then the control inertia is reduced, but the structural stability and cohesion of the panel decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The panel structure is segmented into two half-shells that can be manufactured and assembled separately. This segmentation allows the thin flow path structure to be achieved while maintaining structural integrity through the connection of two stable half-shell components rather than relying on a single thick-walled structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The panel uses a composite structure combining two half-shells with complementary elevations and depressions. This composite approach creates a stable structure with thin flow paths, as each half-shell provides structural support while the combined structure achieves the desired thin fluid pathway for reduced control inertia.
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
This design results in increased heat output, reduced control inertia, uniform surface temperature, and improved radiant power, while maintaining a stable and efficient structure with reduced water throughput, enhancing both heating and cooling performance.
Implementation Method 1
extremely good and large-area heat transfer from the heat transfer fluid to the half-shells and vice versa
Implementation Method 2
convection ribs should be able to have a greater overall depth
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The heater and cooler panel is formed with two profiled half-shells (H1,H2) connected with each other in their boundary areas. The half-shells are formed between two parallel collection channels. The flow path (S) for the working fluid is limited between the collection channels. The elevations towering from the inner surface of the connected half-shells and reversed from the flow path of the both half-shells protrude into the recesses in one half-shell. The recesses are formed in the inner surface of the opposite lying half-shell.