Split bay forced draft air-cooled heat exchanger
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Solution Overview
Problem
Air-cooled heat exchanger designs are limited by size restrictions for transportation, which restricts the number of bays required for installations due to width, height, and length limitations in various regions.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a split bay design for forced draft air-cooled heat exchangers, where the bay is fabricated and shipped in two separate assemblies that can be bolted together in the field, allowing for larger bay sizes to be manufactured and transported with shared fans and mechanical drives, reducing the number of fans and drives needed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If heat exchanger bays are made larger to reduce the number of units required, then installation efficiency and space utilization improve, but transportation becomes restricted due to width, height, and length limitations
Solution Approach 1:
The bay is divided into two separate sub-assemblies (first bay sub-assembly and second bay sub-assembly) that can be manufactured and transported independently. Each sub-assembly includes half of the plenum structure, allowing the complete bay to be assembled on-site by joining the two halves, thus overcoming transportation size restrictions while achieving a larger effective bay size for improved installation efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The machinery mount with fan assembly is positioned to span across both bay sub-assemblies, with the fan configured to force air into the plenum made up of first and second plenum halves. This nested arrangement allows the fan and drive assembly to serve both sub-assemblies simultaneously, reducing the total number of fans and drives required while maintaining operational efficiency
2Device complexity
If the number of fans and drive assemblies is reduced by using a single larger bay, then equipment cost and complexity decrease, but transportation restrictions prevent manufacturing larger bays
Solution Approach 1:
The bay is divided into two separate sub-assemblies (first bay sub-assembly and second bay sub-assembly) that can be manufactured and transported independently. Each sub-assembly includes half of the plenum structure, allowing the complete bay to be assembled on-site by joining the two halves, thus overcoming transportation size restrictions while achieving a larger effective bay size for improved installation efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The machinery mount with fan assembly is positioned to span across both bay sub-assemblies, with the fan configured to force air into the plenum made up of first and second plenum halves. This nested arrangement allows the fan and drive assembly to serve both sub-assemblies simultaneously, reducing the total number of fans and drives required while maintaining operational efficiency
3Length of moving object
If transportation restrictions are accommodated by using multiple smaller bays, then transportation becomes easier, but the number of required fans, drives, and supporting equipment increases
Solution Approach 1:
The bay is divided into two separate sub-assemblies (first bay sub-assembly and second bay sub-assembly) that can be manufactured and transported independently. Each sub-assembly includes half of the plenum structure, allowing the complete bay to be assembled on-site by joining the two halves, thus overcoming transportation size restrictions while achieving a larger effective bay size for improved installation efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The machinery mount with fan assembly is positioned to span across both bay sub-assemblies, with the fan configured to force air into the plenum made up of first and second plenum halves. This nested arrangement allows the fan and drive assembly to serve both sub-assemblies simultaneously, reducing the total number of fans and drives required while maintaining operational efficiency
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 approach enables the manufacture and transportation of larger heat exchanger bays with fewer fans and mechanical drives, providing a competitive advantage by allowing a single larger bay to replace two smaller ones at a competitive price, while maintaining structural integrity during shipping and operation.
Implementation Method 1
a fan configured to force air into a plenum made up of the first and second plenum halves and across the first and second tube bundles
Implementation Method 2
Air-cooled heat exchangers, as the name implies, use air as the second cooling fluid and typically employ a fan to drive the air over tube bundles through which the process fluids being cooled flow
Data Source
AI summary
A split bay forced draft air-cooled heat exchanger includes first and second bay sub-assemblies. Each sub-assembly includes a tube bundle, a plenum half positioned under the tube bundle and base beams supporting the tube bundle and the plenum half. Also included is a fan assembly having a fan, a fan motor and a drive assembly and a machinery mount upon which the fan assembly is mounted. The machinery mount is attached to base beams of the first bay sub-assembly and is configured to removably attach to base beams of the second sub-assembly with the fan configured to force air into a plenum made up of the plenum halves and across the tube bundles.