Patent attributes
A heat exchanger for severe temperature and fluid flow conditions in one configuration includes a first longitudinal shell, a second longitudinal shell, and a transverse shell extending transversely between the longitudinal shells. The longitudinal shells may be parallel to each other. The shells are fluidly coupled directly together to form a common shell-side space between an inlet and outlet tubesheet. A generally U-shaped assembly of shells is thus formed. The tube bundle has a complementary U-shaped configuration comprising a plurality of tubes which extend through the longitudinal and transverse shells between the tubesheets. An expansion joint fluidly couples each longitudinal shell to one of the tubesheets. The shell-side inlet and outlet nozzle may be fluidly coupled to the expansion joints for introducing and extracting the shell-side fluid from the heat exchanger. In another configuration, the heat exchanger may be L-shaped with tube bundle of the same configuration.
