A spiral passage chemical converter-heat exchanger formed by a cross-sectional rectangular housing containing a pair of rows each containing a plurality of side-by-side passages. The rectangular housing is wound into a spiral with the innermost row forming inlet passages and the outermost row forming outlet passages. Thermal contact exists between inflow passages and outflow passages. The outer end of the spiral is connected with an inlet and an outlet. The inlet joins the innermost row of passages and the outlet joins the outermost row of passages. The inner end of the spiral is capped, with a common wall separating the upper and lower passages slotted so that fluid flows from the inlet passages to the outlet passages. As can be seen when the structure is in a spiral, the inlet passages are between the outlet passages with the outlet passages forming the outer exposed surface of the spiral and the inlet passages forming the surface of the opening through the spiral at the center. A concave sunlight reflector will focus sunlight into the central opening of the spiral thereby heating the fluid in the inlet passages. Since the outlet passages are separated by the inlet passages in the spiral and are in thermal contact therewith, the solar heated outlet fluid will heat the input fluid as it circles the spiral to the outlet passages.
Spiral-Passage Heat Exchanger
1978
8 pages
Report
No indication
English