Variable Cross-Section Heat Exchanger Channels
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heat exchanger designs face limitations in increasing heat transfer performance, reducing pressure loss, and minimizing size and weight, especially in high-temperature applications, due to structural reliability issues and design constraints.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a heat exchanger body with axially extending flow channels that form separate fluid-isolated flow circuits, where each channel's cross-section varies along its axis, allowing for counter-flow or cross-flow configurations and utilizing additive manufacturing to create channels that increase or decrease in cross-sectional area, optimizing heat transfer and pressure drop.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional plate fin construction is used, then structural reliability is maintained, but heat transfer performance is limited and size/weight cannot be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by transitioning from static, uniform cross-sectional channels to dynamic, variable cross-sectional channels that change along the flow direction. This allows the heat exchanger to optimize heat transfer area and pressure drop characteristics at different positions, breaking the limitations of conventional plate fin construction while maintaining structural reliability through carefully designed variable geometry.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements parameter changes by varying the cross-sectional area of flow channels along their length. By changing geometric parameters (cross-sectional area) as a function of position, the design optimizes both heat transfer performance and pressure drop characteristics, enabling improved productivity without being constrained by traditional design approaches.
2Productivity
If uniform cross-section channels are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but heat transfer performance and pressure loss optimization are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by varying the cross-sectional area of flow channels along their length. This allows optimization of heat transfer performance and pressure loss characteristics that cannot be achieved with uniform channels, while the variable geometry is manufactured using additive manufacturing technology that can handle complex shapes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional mechanical manufacturing methods (which struggle with variable cross-sections) with additive manufacturing technology. This substitution enables the production of complex, variable-geometry channels that would be difficult or impossible to manufacture using traditional mechanical processes, thereby achieving superior heat transfer performance.
3Area of stationary object
If cross-sectional area increases along flow direction, then heat transfer area increases, but pressure drop may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by optimizing the cross-sectional area at different locations along the flow channel. Rather than using a uniform or monotonically increasing cross-section, the design varies the local cross-sectional area to achieve optimal heat transfer area while managing pressure drop. This localized optimization allows different sections of the channel to serve different functions: some sections provide heat transfer area while others manage flow velocity and pressure characteristics.
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 enhances heat exchanger performance by balancing heat transfer and pressure drop, reduces size and weight, and enables high-temperature operation by minimizing stress and pressure differential, while increasing the primary surface area and structural support.
Implementation Method 1
Heat exchangers are central to the functionality of numerous systems, such as in gas turbine engines and environmental systems
Implementation Method 2
A first set of flow channels is defined in the heat exchanger body extending axially with respect to a first flow axis... A second set of flow channels is defined in the heat exchanger body extending axially with respect to a second flow axis
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A heat exchanger (100) includes a heat exchanger body (102). A first set of flow channels (108) is defined in the heat exchanger body extending axially with respect to a first flow axis, wherein the first set of the flow channels forms a first flow circuit (110). A second set of flow channels (108) is defined in the heat exchanger body extending axially with respect to a second flow axis. The second set of the flow channels forms a second flow circuit (112) that is in fluid isolation from the first flow circuit (110). Each flow channel is fluidly isolated from the other flow channels. At least some of the flow channels (108) have cross-sections that vary along their respective flow axis.