초록 ▼

High pressure gaseous oxygen is obtained safely and without compression by heating pumped liquid oxygen in a printed circuit type heat exchanger having layers of transversely extending laterally spaced channels with each layer being in thermal contact with at least one other layer. Oxygen is vaporiz

High pressure gaseous oxygen is obtained safely and without compression by heating pumped liquid oxygen in a printed circuit type heat exchanger having layers of transversely extending laterally spaced channels with each layer being in thermal contact with at least one other layer. Oxygen is vaporized in channels of oxygen-layers against heat exchange fluid passing through channels of heat exchange layers. The walls of the oxygen layer channels are formed of ferrous alloy and have a cross-section, in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flow, having a thickness at its narrowest of at least about 10%, and on average at least about 15%, of the combined hydraulic mean diameters of the adjacent channels, and the ratio of cross-sectional area, in said plane, of the walls to the cross-sectional area of the channels is no less than about 0.7.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A heat exchanger for heating a stream of liquid oxygen at a pressure of at least about 30 bar by indirect heat exchange against a heat exchange fluid, said heat exchanger comprising:a body having a plurality of spaced layers of transversely extending laterally spaced channels defined by ferrous a

1. A heat exchanger for heating a stream of liquid oxygen at a pressure of at least about 30 bar by indirect heat exchange against a heat exchange fluid, said heat exchanger comprising:a body having a plurality of spaced layers of transversely extending laterally spaced channels defined by ferrous alloy walls with each layer being in thermal contact with at least one other layer; oxygen inlet means for introducing pumped liquid oxygen at a pressure of at least about 30 bar into the channels of at least one layer, hereafter "oxygen layers"; oxygen outlet means for removing heated oxygen from said channels of the oxygen layers; heat exchange fluid inlet means for introducing heat exchange fluid into the channels of at least one layer, hereafter "heat exchange layers", adjacent to an oxygen layer and in thermal contact therewith; heat exchange fluid outlet means for removing cooled heat exchange fluid from said channels of the heat exchange layers; wherein the walls between adjacent channels in each oxygen layer and the walls between said channels in the oxygen layer and channels in an adjacent layer each have a cross-section, in a plane perpendicular to the direction of flow through the adjacent channels, having a thickness which at its narrowest is at least about 10% of the combined hydraulic mean diameters of the two adjacent channels and on average is at least about 15% of said combined hydraulic mean diameters, and the ratio of cross-sectional area, in said plane, of the mass of the ferrous alloy walls defining the channels in each oxygen layer to the cross-sectional area of the channels in that layer is no less than about 0.7.