Evaporator unit

Abstract

An evaporator for an air conditioning system includes a plurality of clamshell plates stacked in series along a longitudinal axis and a plurality of core tubes coupled with the stacked clamshell plates. In an upper region of the evaporator, the stacked clamshell plates form an inlet tank and an outlet tank hydraulically communicated with the core tubes for a refrigerant flow. Each of the clamshell plates includes a pooling ridge on a first surface of the clamshell plate for pooling a liquid refrigerant by gravity such that the liquid refrigerant is evenly distributed to inlet core tubes disposed along the longitudinal axis.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An evaporator for an air conditioning system, the evaporator comprising:
 a plurality of clamshell plates stacked in series along a longitudinal axis and the stacked clamshell plates forming an inlet tank and an outlet tank in an upper region of the evaporator;   a plurality of core tubes coupled with the stacked clamshell plates and hydraulically communicating with the inlet tank and the outlet tank for a refrigerant flow; and   a pooling ridge formed on a first surface of at least one of the clamshell plates and configured for pooling a liquid refrigerant by gravity such that the liquid refrigerant is evenly distributed to inlet core tubes disposed along the longitudinal axis.   
     
     
         2 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the clamshell plates includes an inlet tank opening and an outlet tank opening for forming the inlet and outlet tanks in the stacked clamshell plates in series along the longitudinal axis, and the pooling ridge of the clamshell plate is formed along a bottom edge portion of the inlet tank opening. 
     
     
         3 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the clamshell plates further includes a rim ridge along top and lateral sides of the clamshell plate, and a center ridge along a vertical axis of the clamshell plate. 
     
     
         4 . The evaporator of  claim 3 , wherein the rim ridge, the center ridge and the pooling ridge are formed as a single ridge. 
     
     
         5 . The evaporator of  claim 4 , wherein the clamshell plate includes an inlet tank opening and an outlet tank opening, and the inlet tank opening is enclosed by the single ridge with a channel along an edge of the inlet tank opening. 
     
     
         6 . The evaporator of  claim 5 , wherein the channel is formed between the center ridge and the pooling ridge along the edge of the inlet tank opening for allowing the liquid refrigerant to flow out from a liquid refrigerant pool. 
     
     
         7 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the core tubes includes an open inlet end and an open outlet end, and the open inlet and outlet ends of the core tubes are inserted into the stacked clamshell plates by an insertion depth in the upper region of the evaporator. 
     
     
         8 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein the evaporator further includes a distributor tube disposed inside the inlet tank and configured to receive and expand two phase refrigerant for aliquoting the two phase refrigerant. 
     
     
         9 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein the evaporator further includes a transition tank in a lower region of the evaporator for hydraulically connecting with the core tubes for the refrigerant flow from the inlet tank to the outlet tank. 
     
     
         10 . The evaporator of  claim 9 , wherein a flow-modulation plate is disposed within the transition tank for aliquoting the refrigerant from the inlet core tubes to outlet core tubes. 
     
     
         11 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein a clamshell housing formed by mating a pair of clamshell plates forms a phase change material chamber for serving as a cold storage. 
     
     
         12 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein each of the clamshell plates is formed from a sheet of heat conductive material. 
     
     
         13 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein a plurality of fins are disposed between and materially joined to the core tubes for facilitating heat exchange. 
     
     
         14 . The evaporator of  claim 1 , wherein each of the clamshell plates further includes a plurality of spherical bumps in a space below the inlet and outlet opening on the first surface of the clamshell plate.