Liquid metal heat exchanger

Claim 1

A heat exchanger where liquid metal flows over tubes which contain another flowing heat exchange fluid comprising: a. a shell; b. a pipe extending down into said shell and forming a central passageway surrounded by and communicating at one of its ends with an annular passageway between said pipe and said shell forming a double pass for said liquid metal; c. an annularly arranged tube bundle having a plurality of tubes extending through said annular passageway for carrying a single pass of said other heat exchange liquid, said tubes being arranged in a number of concentric circles with the distance between adjacent tubes on each circle being chosen so that the sum of the distances between adjacent tubes will be substantially equal at each circle; and d. annular baffles for supporting said tubes, said baffles being parallel to each other and axially spaced and encircling said tube bundle and being of two types, one of said types of baffles extending outwardly from said pipe to a circle spaced inwardly from said shell, the other of said types extending inwardly from said shell to a circle spaced outwardly from said pipes, said types being alternately spaced so that they direct said liquid metal alternately radially inward and radially outward across said tubes as said liquid metal passes along The length of said passageway, said arrangement of tubes being such as to assure a substantially constant velocity of said liquid metal across each of said baffles.