Refrigeration – Processes – Congealing flowable material – e.g. – ice making
Patent
1991-12-24
1994-07-12
Ford, John K.
Refrigeration
Processes
Congealing flowable material, e.g., ice making
165 47, 165 49, 165 56, 165 46, 62235, 237 69, F25C 100, F25C 302, A63C 1910, F28F 900
Patent
active
053277376
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a method of heat-exchange, comprising advancing an energy-carrying medium in a channel system comprising lengths of mutually parallel channel parts, such as hose parts, and supporting said channel parts with the aid of a substantially sheet-or slab-like base element.
The invention also relates to an arrangement for carrying out the method.
The invention is intended primarily for application in the construction of artificially frozen ice-rinks or like playing areas, but can also be applied to produce all kinds of large heat-exchange surfaces, such as so-called heated floors, solar-energy collectors, etc.
In conventional methods of producing artificially frozen playing areas, steel pipes are cast in a concrete bed or anchored loosely in a gravel bed, and, refrigerant, such as ammoniacal liquid, is caused to expand and evaporate. The energy required herefor is taken from the ambient surroundings of the pipes, therewith cooling the surroundings.
Later solutions utilize indirect evaporation techniques, i.e. a frost-protected liquid is chilled with the aid, for instance, of ammonia or freon and is circulated in the channel system of the ice rink, pitch or like area concerned. The pipes used may be made of a plastics material. The plastic pipes are anchored in reinforcement netting or the like and-are embedded or anchored in some other way, and then covered with gravel, such as to provide a cooling surface for the production of an artificially frozen ice-rink or like area.
According to one method of laying cooling pipes in gravel beds, there is first formed a layer of asphalt concrete which is provided with grooves on the outer surface thereof for accommodation of the cooling pipes. The cooling pipes, often in the form of hoses, are then placed in the grooves and surrounded or packed with sand, up to the level of the upper edge of the asphalt layer. The surface is covered with a fibre fabric, for instance a geofabric, and a layer of gravel material is laid to a depth of about 50 mm, with the intention of preventing the hoses from moving out of the grooves as a result of linear expansion in summer time. The hoses are thus held in position by the weight of the gravel in combination with pressure distribution from the fibre fabric. The hoses placed in said asphalt grooves or in some other grooved material can also be covered with concrete, which anchors the hoses and protects the same against mechanical action and the effect of degrading UV-light. A construction of hoses in a grooved base material covered, for instance, with gravel or concrete can be used as a cooling surface for artificially frozen ice rinks, as a heated floor or as a solar energy collector on the ground, on a separate framework or on the roof of a building.
An analysis has shown that the following technical desiderata and considerations are common to such constructions:
Heat transfer from/to the undersurface of the construction should be screened with an insulating material, so as to direct heat transportation from/to the hoses to a layer which essentially covers the outer layer of the construction.
The hoses should be densely packed, so as to achieve a large hose-surface area and therewith a more uniform distribution of temperature from/to said surface layer and lower resistance to heat transportation through the walls of the hoses.
It should be relatively simple to anchor the hoses in conjunction with placing said hoses on the base element, since varying temperatures and solar radiation will result in an increase/decrease of the hose temperature, therewith causing the hoses to move prior to being finally anchored, by packing said hoses with an appropriate material.
The material packed around and over the hoses, up to the surface of the construction, should have a high thermal conductivity, so as to achieve the lowest possible temperature drop through said material. The material should also be in good contact with the outer surfaces of the hoses, so as to achieve the lowest possible resistance to the transfer of h
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patent: 4576221 (1986-03-01), Fennesz
patent: 4588125 (1986-05-01), Lutz
patent: 4646814 (1987-03-01), Fennesz
patent: 4815301 (1989-03-01), Deloughery
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