A Compact Heat Exchanger for a Heat Pump

摘要

A Vuilleumier heat pump is disclosed in which the hot and cold displacers are disposed with a cylinder wall and an annular space outside the cylinder wall and inside the outer housing has at least one heat exchanger disposed therein. Any volume in the annular space is dead volume. A compact, effective heat exchanger is disclosed that facilitates reducing the dead volume. The heat exchanger is substantially helical with tubes that have a cross section that have a length in the direction of flow between adjacent tubes greater than a length perpendicular to the direction of flow.

主权项

1. A heat pump, comprising:
a housing having an outer wall and a cylinder liner within the housing, with an annular volume located inside the outer wall and outside the cylinder liner; a hot displacer disposed within the cylinder liner; a cold displacer disposed within the cylinder liner; and a first heat exchanger disposed in the annular volume wherein the first heat exchanger comprises at least a first tube wrapped into a first coil with a plurality of turns with adjacent turns separated by a first predetermined distance wherein a cross-section of the at least first tube is one of substantially race-track shaped and substantially rectangular.