In an era of continuous human civilization progress, energy has become increasingly indispensable. More than 80% of energy development, production and consumption involves thermal energy conversion, which relies on various types of heat exchangers. Therefore, heat exchangers should be regarded as key equipment for energy conservation and emission reduction.
Due to their inherent characteristics and limitations, most commonly used heat exchangers are only applicable to specific fields rather than a full range of scenarios. For example, devices suitable for airtofluid heat exchange cannot be used for liquidtoliquid heat exchange, and vice versa. Similarly, heat exchangers designed for lowpressure and lowtemperature environments are not suitable for hightemperature and highpressure conditions. Against this background, the thermalwall phasechange heat exchanger has emerged.
The thermalwall phasechange heat exchanger shares the same fundamental working principle as heat pipe heat exchangers, but differs greatly in structural form: one is tubular and the other is platetype. Its advantages include higher compactness than conventional heat pipes, greater flexibility in design optimization, and adaptability to a wider range of heat exchange applications. It features separate dedicated channels for vapor and liquid phases, eliminating interphase flow resistance and the liquid resistance caused by capillary tension. This accelerates the circulation of the phasechange fluid and improves heat transfer efficiency.
The thermalwall phasechange heat exchanger is mainly composed of thermal walls. Each thermal wall consists of an internal support structure and a heat transfer partition enclosing it. The interior of the thermal wall is evacuated and filled with phasechange fluid. The internal support structure includes a middle section for vertical flow and upper and lower sections for horizontal flow of the phasechange fluid.
Thermal walls can be rectangular and arranged in parallel clusters of uniform size, or annular and nested in layers of different sizes. Between every two adjacent thermal walls, channel strips or fins are installed to provide structural support, pressure resistance and unobstructed fluid passage.
The fluid sides formed by channel strips or fins outside all thermal walls are divided into multiple zones, including a heat absorption zone and a heat release zone. Longdistance heat exchange between heat exchange fluids in contact with the thermal walls is realized through the phasechange fluid inside the thermal walls.