| 摘要 |
<p>A heat pipe heat exchanger is provided in the form of a serpentine heat pipe (38) that does not have the ends of the individual tubes manifolded to one another via a straight pipe or via any other common connector. Instead, it has been discovered that heat pipes connected via U-bends (31) to form a continuous coil function adequately. The serpentine heat pipe may include integral condenser and evaporator portions separated by a divider to form a one-slab heat exchanger, or separate evaporator and condenser coils connected to one another by vapor and return lines to form a two-section heat pipe. A method of producing a serpentine heat pipe indludes providing a plurality of U-shaped tubes (30) which are interconnected to form a single serpentine heat pipe (38), one of the tubes having an open end, and inserting sufficient refrigerant (34) in the one tube to allow each of the tubes to function as a separate heat pipe. The serpentine heat pipe heat exchanger may be used to increase the dehumidification capacity of an air conditioner.</p> |
