Spaced evaporative wicks within an air cooler
First Claim
1. A heat exchanger comprising a stack of spaced, non-planar sheets defining between them a plurality of alternate dry channels and wet channels, each said channel terminating at its ends in air inlet and air outlet openings,a plurality of spaced wicks extending across said wet channels transversely with respect to air flow and partly in suspension between said non-planar sheets,said non-planar sheet including corrugations disposed diagonally with respect to air flow and being inclined with respect to one another, at least some of said corrugations contacting and spatially locating at least some of the wicks;
- wetting means associated with said wicks, and,the configuration of said spaced sheets and said wicks being such that, when in use, said wetting means maintain surfaces of said wicks moist, and air flows over most of the surface areas of said wicks.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
To improve both heat transfer and evaporation in a heat exchanger (10, 25, 42) of an air cooler, there are provided a number of spaced narrow wet wicks (13) over which air flows transversely, and those wicks (13) are sandwiched between impervious spacer sheets (11, 12), the surface configuration of the spacer sheets (11, 12) being non-planar so as to increase the areas of the wicks (13) over which air flows, and also to increase air turbulence and thereby mixing, the increased mixing not only assisting in the evaporation of water from wicks (13) but also assisting in the heat transfer through the spacer sheets (11, 12) which define the air passages containing the wicks (13).
80 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A heat exchanger comprising a stack of spaced, non-planar sheets defining between them a plurality of alternate dry channels and wet channels, each said channel terminating at its ends in air inlet and air outlet openings,
a plurality of spaced wicks extending across said wet channels transversely with respect to air flow and partly in suspension between said non-planar sheets, said non-planar sheet including corrugations disposed diagonally with respect to air flow and being inclined with respect to one another, at least some of said corrugations contacting and spatially locating at least some of the wicks; -
wetting means associated with said wicks, and, the configuration of said spaced sheets and said wicks being such that, when in use, said wetting means maintain surfaces of said wicks moist, and air flows over most of the surface areas of said wicks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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- 10. A method of cooling air in an evaporative air cooler comprising moistening a plurality of spaced wicks carried by and suspended between corrugations of a stack of spaced corrugated sheets and impelling an air flow along the corrugations and transversely over and around said wicks to thereby humidify and cool the air in a periodic restart of evaporation.
Specification