| 20090101321 | Heat Exchanger - The invention presents a MONOBLOC fin and plate heat exchanger design preventing internal leakages and intermixing of high-temperature and low-temperature flows, e.g. oil and fuel. This is achieved through a particular configuration of the heat exchanger, whereby its core assembly is completely or partially produced from a one-piece monolithic metallic block. Owing to that, all brazed seams, which in conventional fin and plate heat exchangers contact with both hot medium and cold medium flows, are fully abolished thereby excluding a source for imperfections usually developing in brazed joints and base metal in the process of pressure-temperature cyclic loading. Employing custom-made individual fins allows about two-fold increase in the strength of brazed joints in comparison with ordinary corrugated fins (due to doubling of the brazed surface). As a result, the suggested configuration allows the design of a high reliability compact heat transfer device for much higher operating pressures than what may be achieved in the conventional fin and plate heat exchanger. This invention may be used in different fields of modern technology, especially for aeronautical engine applications, where the challenge of ensuring reliability levels of one failure in millions of (fleet-cumulative) flight hours, and operating pressure levels of thousands of pounds per square inch, must be met. | 04-23-2009 |
