Vertical heat exchanger

• US 5,425,415 A
• Filed: 06/15/1993
• Issued: 06/20/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: ABB Lummus Crest Inc.
• Original Assignee: ABB Lummus Crest Inc.
• Inventors: Jansen, Adrianus C. J., Wijnen Riems, Harry A., Master, Bashir I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivell, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEO, LEONARD R
• Application Number:
  US08/077,121
• Time in Patent Office: 735 Days
• Field of Search: 165/158, 165/159, 165/155, 165/154, 165/164, 122/7 R, 122/16, 122/114, 122/155.1, 122/348
• US Class Current: 165/154
• CPC Class Codes: F28D 7/106 consisting of two coaxial conduits or modules of two coaxial conduits
• CPC Class Codes: F28F 9/02 Header boxes; End plates

Abstract

A vertical heat exchanger including a vertical tube bundle connected between a lower inlet manifold and upper outlet manifold. The tube bundle comprises numerous pairs of concentric tubes with the inner tube being spaced from the outer tube to form an annular flow passage positioned around an inner flow passage. The inner tubes are welded between outer tube sheets that form a part of the upper and lower manifolds while the outer tubes are welded between inner tube sheets forming part of these manifolds. Each of the manifolds has a distributor ring which has radially directed openings throughout its periphery so as to provide for a radial flow in the manifold. Fluid enters the lower manifold through suitable inlet nozzles and exits the upper manifold through suitable outlet nozzles. A high temperature heating gas is directed up through the inner tubes of each pair of tubes by a conical inlet distributor and exits the upper end of the tube bundle through a similar conical distributor.

Claims

1. A vertically oriented heat exchanger having no shell comprising:

a plurality of vertically disposed, laterally spaced tube elements each of which has an upper and a lower end, each of which includes an inner tube and a concentric outer tube spaced from each other to form an annular flow passage therebetween wherein said spaced tube elements are directly accessible from outside said heat exchanger;

manifold forming means at both the upper and lower ends of said spaced tube elements for directing a fluid to be heated through said annular flow passage and for collecting the fluid from said annular flow passage, each of said manifold forming means including a hot tube sheet to which said inner tube of the concentric tubes is welded at each end thereof and an adjacent cold tube sheet to which said outer tube of the concentric tubes is welded at each end thereof, each of said cold tube sheets being parallel to and closely spaced inwardly of said hot tube sheets;

said spaced hot and cold tube sheets being of circular configuration and said adjacent hot and cold tube sheets being interconnected at their periphery by an annular member welded thereto to thereby provide a manifold communicating with said annular flow passage;

a distributor ring spaced inwardly of the annular member in each manifold, said distributor ring being of U-shaped transverse section welded to opposite tube sheets at the ends of the legs of said U-shape and provided throughout its peripheral extent with spaced, radially directed openings thereby forming an annular manifold surrounding each of said manifolds;

nozzle means communicating with each of these manifolds through said annular member to supply fluid to and convey fluid from the annular manifold and through said radially directed openings to and from said manifold; and

flow means for directing a heating medium through the inner tube of the pair of concentric tubes and conveying the same from these tubes, said flow means including a conical member at each end of the heat exchanger axially parallel with the tube elements and welded to the hot tube sheet, each conical member including axially separate flanged portions removably secured together to permit access to the hot tube sheets.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the annular member is semicircular in tranverse section.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the concentric tube elements are arranged in rows with adjacent pairs of rows being spaced sufficiently to permit access for tube repair and removal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein there are a pair of diametrically opposed nozzles extending radially through the annular member at each end of the heat exchanger.