Heat exchange – Regenerator – Heat collector
Patent
1996-09-05
2000-08-29
Atkinson, Christopher
Heat exchange
Regenerator
Heat collector
16510433, 16510434, 165272, 165279, 361724, 361700, F28D 1700
Patent
active
061093378
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to apparatus for controlling temperature within a housing, and particularly to apparatus for the passive cooling of equipment accommodated in such a housing. The invention also relates to a housing incorporating the apparatus.
In many technical areas such as telecommunications, fibre optic systems, meteorology, transmission and-data control, it is necessary to keep electric or electronic equipment at remote locations. A desert environment is one typical location. The equipment is typically kept in a purpose-built, insulated, closed ambient housing (or shelter), often in adverse weather conditions. In order to ensure a high Mean Time Between Failure for such equipment, it is necessary to maintain the equipment at a near-constant temperature, and often between certain critical temperature limits. At these remote locations, an external power supply is usually not available, and the equipment may consequently be solar-powered via photovoltaic cells. However, the power from these cells is normally insufficient to power active cooling apparatus, such as an air conditioning system. Hence passive cooling apparatus is required in order to control the temperature of the environment in the housing.
Passive cooling apparatus is already known. It comprises essentially three main components, an insulated container (housing) to resist heat transfer from the external ambient, a thermal storage device for maintaining a controlled temperature within the housing and a thermal transfer arrangement for selectively transferring heat between the thermal storage device and the external environment so as to effect thermal storage in the storage device.
In the known apparatus the thermal storage (accumulating) device includes a thermal storage (accumulating) medium in the form of a substance which changes its phase between solid and liquid at or near the desired temperature for the environment inside the housing.
The thermal storage medium inside the thermal storage device absorbs and accumulates the heat given off from the electric/electronic equipment housed inside the container and the heat flowing through the walls during the hotter part of the day.
The thermal transfer arrangement comprises a conduit arranged in a closed circuit and containing a thermal transfer fluid. The conduit is arranged such that inside the housing the fluid exchanges heat with the thermal storage device; it also passes out of the housing, upwardly and over the housing, where it is arranged such that the fluid also exchanges heat with the external environment.
During the part of the day when the external environment is hotter than the internal environment, no heat transfer takes place because the warmer thermal transfer fluid outside is trapped in the portion of the conduit outside the housing. However, at night time or at other times when the external environment is cooler than the internal environment, the colder fluid outside falls under gravity into the portion of the conduit inside, and cools down and regenerates (liquid to solid) the thermal storage medium inside the thermal storage device. Hence, the thermal storage medium inside the thermal storage device is regenerated (liquid to solid) by selective heat transfer between the storage device and the external environment, the selectivity of the apparatus being reliant on the buoyancy force of natural convention of the thermal transfer fluid.
In the known apparatus, a number of thermal transfer arrangements are provided, each comprising a conduit in the form of a closed circuit in this known apparatus, a large number of individual thermal storage devices are provided. Each one comprises bonded sheets of metal in which are formed individual pockets containing thermal storage medium. The same number of pockets is provided as thermal transfer arrangements. The sheets of metal are sealed together around the pockets by a roll-bonding technique, in order to retain the medium. A hole is also formed through the centre of each pocket, the sheets of metal also being sealed together arou
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Actionenergy Limited
Atkinson Christopher
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