Plate type evaporator

Claim 1

A plate type evaporator comprising a plurality of vertically extending plate elements put together face-to-face to define therebetween alternate channels for a heating medium and for a liquid to be evaporated, and porous layers acting as nuclear boiling inducing members formed on the opposed heat transfer surfaces of the plate elements functioning as channels for the liquid to be evaporated, the porous layers consisting of a plurality of metal flakes superposed and bonded together and to the wall surface of the plate element associated with the boiling liquid side to define very small spaces between the metal flakes, said flakes being made of a metal selected from the group consisting of copper and aluminum and having a length of 80-200 microns and a thickness of 50-150 microns, said spaces communicating with each other radially and meshwise to form chain-like-spaces which have small openings on the metal flake surface layer, said spaces each being in the form of a flat trapezoid or flat triangle in cross-section with said small openings being directed toward the metal flake surface layer and the inner surface of said space defining an obtuse angle spreading away from said small opening, whereby boiling liquid is fed into said chain-like-spaces by capillary action to fill every nook and corner thereof, while heat supplied from the heating medium is transferred from the plate element to the metal flakes, so that the boiling liquid in the chain-like-spaces is evaporated by the heat transferred thereto at the surfaces of the metal flakes contacting said boiling liquid, the produced vapor being held in the chain-like-spaces, and when the latter are filled up with the vapor, the gas-liquid interfaces cooperate with the surface tension of the boiling liquid at said openings to prevent entry of boiling liquid into the spaces, while in the spaces, thin films of boiling liquid are held on the metal flake surfaces at all times, and while the vapor which is not held in the chain-like-spaces is removed from said openings in the metal flake surface layer.