A leak-proof plate-fin heat exchanger concept for process plant applications

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:347745

McDonald, C F ^[1]

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1. McDonald Thermal Engineering, La Jolla, CA (United States)

Over the last four decades, plate-fin heat exchangers have been used extensively for aerospace applications, their major attributes being compact size, light weight overall assembly, and high reliability. Several million units have seen service for a wide range of fluids, including operation t high temperature and pressure, and clearly a well established technology base exists. Within the process industries the heat exchanger trend is towards units of smaller size and weight, and lower cost, and the utilization of the plate-fin type of construction is viewed as being in concert with these goals. Recognizing that there are applications involving dissimilar fluids, where an internal heat exchanger leak could result in a hazardous condition, a leak-proof concept to avoid this is discussed in this paper. For a plate-fin heat exchanger of brazed construction, this is achieved by means of a double headering bar system, and a buffer layer between the two fluids. On-line monitoring of heat exchanger integrity can be achieved by monitoring a small continuous purge flow in the buffer interspace. The process industry can benefit from a well established aircraft heat exchanger technology base that exists for this type of compact leak-proof heat exchanger.

• OSTI ID: 347745
• Report Number(s): CONF-970701--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
42 ENGINEERING
DESIGN
FINS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
LEAKS
SIZE
TECHNOLOGY UTILIZATION
WEIGHT