GB1236281A - Improvements in or relating to heat exchangers - Google Patents

Abstract

1,236,281. Steam generators. BABCOCK & WILCOX Ltd. 7 March, 1969 [7 March, 1968; 8 July, 1968], Nos. 11121/68 and 32440/68. Heading F4A. [Also in Division G6] In a heat exchanger having a tube bank 13 through which a first fluid, e.g. water and steam, may flow housed within an enclosure, e.g. a pod formed in the concrete of a nuclear reactor through which a heating fluid, e.g. reactor coolant, may flow over the tube bank and then over a suspended base 14 supporting the tube bank from below, the means supporting the base is cooled to a greater extent than any cooling effected by the passage of the first fluid through the tube bank. The base 14 may be suspended by a member 17 within a sleeve 15 through which conduits 20 leading feed water to the tube bank 13 pass. The lower end of the sleeve 15 is spaced from the base 14 to permit relative thermal expansion. Feed water to be heated may be fed to the tube bank 13 through conduits (25), Fig. 2 (not shown), extending upwardly from below the heating fluid outlet 12 and a cold fluid fed into the sleeve 15 sealed to the base 14 and pass into the heating fluid through a gap at the upper end of the sleeve. The sleeve 15 may be dispensed with and the support formed as an insulated duct having an opening at its upper end and through the bore of which the cold fluid is sent upwardly. In a further embodiment, Fig. 3 (not shown), the base 14 is supported by collars (31) on the conduits 20 supplying the tube bank 13. The base 14 may be suspended from a tubular manifold (40), Fig. 4 (not shown), supplying the tube bank 13 through pipes (21). The manifold may be surrounded by a sleeve (15a), Fig. 4, sealed to the manifold at its lower end to provide an annular dead space open at its upper end. The base may be formed as a plurality of radially extending branch manifolds (50), Fig. 5 (not shown), extending from a central tubular manifold (40).