Stackable Heating Module Assembly for Airflow-Matched Air Handling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing air handling units (AHUs) face inefficiencies due to mismatched airflow patterns between traditional rod-style heating elements and mixed airflow blowers, leading to uneven heating, energy waste, and potential component damage from thermal stress.
Innovation Solution
A heater assembly with coaxially stacked heating modules, each with a shape and capacity tailored to airflow patterns, supported by insulative frames and controlled by a modular system, ensuring efficient and even air heating.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If traditional rod-style heating elements are used in air handling units with mixed airflow blowers, then the heating capacity is sufficient, but the airflow pattern mismatch causes uneven heating and energy waste
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is designed with varying local properties - the cross-sectional area changes along the flow direction, with larger areas at the inlet and smaller areas at the outlet. This local variation in geometry creates corresponding local variations in heat transfer coefficients that compensate for the mixed airflow pattern, ensuring uniform heating across different regions of the air stream.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameter of the heating element - specifically the cross-sectional area - as a function of position along the flow direction. This parameter change (area decreasing downstream) is designed to match the airflow pattern characteristics, transforming the heating performance from non-uniform to uniform across the air stream.
2Productivity
If heating elements are designed to match airflow patterns, then heating efficiency improves, but the complexity of designing and manufacturing custom-shaped heating elements increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is segmented into multiple heating sections or zones along the flow direction, where each section has a specific cross-sectional area designed for its local airflow conditions. This segmentation allows the complex overall shape to be broken down into simpler, manufacturable sections that can be produced using standard manufacturing techniques.
3Power
If a single large heating element is used, then the heating capacity is high, but it causes thermal stress and potential damage from uneven heating distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The single large heating element is divided into multiple smaller heating sections arranged along the flow path. Each section handles a portion of the total heating load, distributing the thermal stress across multiple components rather than concentrating it in one large element. This also improves heating uniformity by matching each section's capacity to the local airflow conditions.
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 efficient, evenly distributed heating with a wide range of capacities, reducing thermal stress and enhancing AHU reliability by aligning heating elements with airflow characteristics.
Implementation Method 1
a heating element of a predefined shape and a predefined heating capacity
Implementation Method 2
one or more thermally and electrically insulative devices to electrically and thermally isolate the frame from the heating element
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
Disclosed herein is an air handling unit (100). The air handling unit comprises a housing duct (102), a blower (108) disposed inside the housing duct for moving air within the housing duct, and a heater assembly (106) comprising a plurality of heating modules (106-1 - 106-N) coaxially stacked over each other along a direction of the airflow, with the heater assembly coaxially disposed inside the housing duct along a direction of flow of the air. Each of the heating modules comprises a frame (202) formed by a mesh of rods (202-1 - 202-3), where the frame is configured to be removably disposed inside the housing duct, and a heating element (204) of a predefined shape and a predefined heating capacity removably attached to and supported on the frame. The predefined shape is selected based on an airflow pattern of the air flowing through the respective heating module such that the air flows through the corresponding heating element.