Hybrid dry cooler heat exchange with water-droplet slit and water-droplet splitting louver for heat exchangers with primarily latent heat transfer

Abstract

Hybrid dry cooler heat exchangers with one or more tube-fin heat exchange assemblies including at lease one such assembly wetted by water dropped on it with the first of such assembly stamped to provide arrays of slit/louver combinations breaking up water droplets and averting flight of droplets into a gas flowing between adjacent fins.

1 . Hybrid dry cooler heat exchanger, comprising multiple tubes arranged parallel to and spaced from each other and arranged in an air flow direction in series or offset,
 means providing liquid coolant and flowing it through the tubes,   means for flowing a gas around the tubes laterally to the longitudinal tube direction,   wherein several fins are arranged around the tubes in the gas flow path and are connected with the tubes for heat transfer substantially perpendicular, the fins running to the longitudinal tube direction,   each fin having several baffles that run in the longitudinal fin direction and in the gas flow direction and are arranged behind and parallel to each other, that run substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal tube direction in their longitudinal direction and perpendicular to the gas flow direction,   the apparatus being constructed so that several baffles around a tube represent an elementary formation, repetitively applied to each tube of the fin, and so that the baffles when charged with water droplets can catch, split and redirect these,   the baffles running parallel to each other and being offset in the longitudinal fin direction,   the baffles extending so far out of the plane of the fins at an angle such that the cut surface comes to lie approximately in the center of the fin gap.   
   
   
       2 . Heat exchanger according to claim I, wherein all baffles are the same distance from each other. 
   
   
       3 . Heat exchanger according to claim I, wherein all baffles are different distances from each other. 
   
   
       4 . Heat exchanger according to claim I, wherein a larger number of shorter baffles are the same or different distances from each other and where a second row follows the first row in the gas flow direction covering the spaces of the first row and following rows cover the same spaces of the preceding rows. 
   
   
       5 . Heat exchanger according to claim I, wherein the baffles are stamped in a way to form intergral side walls. 
   
   
       6 . Heat exchanger having dry and wet heat exchanger assemblies and constructed and arranged so that the coolant first flows through the dry heat exchanger and then through the heat exchanger wetted with water and comprising an intake fan arranged over the heat exchangers which draw cooling air jointly out of the heat exchangers, and
 the water-wettable heat exchanger assembly being equipped with a secondary cooling circuit.   
   
   
       7 . Heat exchanger according to claim I, wherein both heat exchangers are operable without wetting of the heat exchanger. 
   
   
       8 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 4 , is constructed and arranged so that the water feed on the fins of the heat exchanger can take place both from above and, by means of nozzles or otherwise, from the air flow direction. 
   
   
       9 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7  wherein the heat exchanger assemblies are positioned in separate locations and each heat exchanger assembly has its own fan. 
   
   
       10 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7 , wherein the heat exchanger assemblies contain an upwardly opening angle of 0° to 30°. 
   
   
       11 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7  constructed and arranged so that the cooling-air stream can be sucked through the heat exchanger assemblies using at least one fan with an adjustable speed. 
   
   
       12 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7 , wherein the output of the fan or fans is sized so that even at top speed, and therefore at the maximum air load on the wetted surface of the heat exchanger, no droplets are carried out. 
   
   
       13 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7 , wherein both the heat exchanger and the heat exchanger comprise several independent, interconnected units connected in parallel or in series to each other. 
   
   
       14 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7 , wherein both heat exchanger assemblies are simultaneously flowed into and flowed through by the liquid coolant. 
   
   
       15 . Heat exchanger according to  claim 7 , wherein the heat exchanger and the heat exchanger are equipped with a secondary coolant circuit for wetting.