Heat Exchangers 101
In order to truly understand thermal management solutions, it only makes sense that understanding what a heat exchanger is would be fundamental. It isn’t as complicated as it sounds. A heat exchanger is exactly what it sounds like, a device that exchanges heat between two different elements. A heat exchanger is crucial for heat transfer, which is simply the movement of heat from place A to place B. If an object is at one temperature, but all of its surroundings are at another, heat transfer is required through a heat exchanger in order to ensure that the object AND its surroundings are all at the same temperature.
A space heater is a practical example of a heat exchanger. This is a self contained unit that is used to heat a specified area. The heat transfer occurs from the space heater to its surroundings through a heat exchanger within the unit that blows the heat out.
A refrigerator is another unit that has a heat exchanger within, but this time, the heat is being taken out of the unit, to cool the contents inside. Air conditioners work the same way as refrigerators, but blow the cool outside, rather than the heat, as in a space heater. Air conditioning units, as well as refrigerators, generally contain two heat exchangers. One for evaporation, and one for condensation. In these cases, the refrigerant within the unit will flow into the exchanger to perform heat transfer, and will do so by either picking it up or releasing it into a cooling medium. This cooling medium is usually either water or air. The condenser heat exchanger will work to condense the hot gaseous refrigerants into a cooler liquid.
The condenser can cool gas by transferring the heat through the medium of either water or air. This gas will then be condensed to liquid form. With the evaporator, this cooled liquid will flow through the heat exchanger as well, but in the reverse direction, absorbing heat from the warmer air that is currently flowing. This will cool the air and boil the refrigerant within for extremely effective thermal solutions of heat exchange and transfer.
