Importance

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Abstract

An extremely high efficiency, crossflow, fluid-fluid, micro heat exchanger is disclosed. To concurrently achieve the goals of high mass flow rate, low pressure drop, and high heat transfer rates, the heat exchanger comprises numerous parallel, but relatively short microchannels. The performance of these heat exchangers is superior to the performance of previously available heat exchangers. Typical channel heights are from a few hundred micrometers to about 2000 micrometers, and typical channel widths are from around 50 micrometers to a few hundred micrometers. The micro heat exchangers offer substantial advantages over conventional, larger heat exchangers in performance, weight, size, and cost. The heat exchangers are especially useful for enhancing gas-side heat exchange. Some of the many possible applications include aircraft heat exchange, air conditioning, portable cooling systems, and micro combustion chambers for fuel cells. The use of microchannels in a cross-flow micro-heat exchanger decreases the thermal diffusion lengths substantially, allowing substantially greater heat transfer per unit volume or per unit mass than has been achieved with prior heat exchangers. The cross-flow micro-heat exchanger have performance characteristics that are superior to state-of-the-art designs, as measured on a per-unit-volume or per-unit-mass basis.

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First Claim