Description:FIELD OF INVENTION:
[0001] The present invention relates to design and fabrication of universal expandability features in heating device. This invention is based on the expandability feature used in heating devices specially in the solar heat exchanger for space heating applications.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION:
[0002] Traditionally, there has been no alternative for space heating in higher altitude places other than depending on direct sunlight or fossil fuels.
[0003] Many ideas have been put out to create solar space heating systems to replace the conventional heating systems, which typically use fossil fuels. The present established and rarely accessible solar space heating devices, however, are less effective, costly, and not viable solutions are available especially for high altitude locations where the weather is dramatic and challenging.
[0004] Various hybrids methods are being utilized to offer proper heat regulation. Hence many of the solar heating systems now on the market are linked with conventional systems. To maximize the use of heat produced by the solar heating system while minimizing dependency on the conventional system, this often involves quite sophisticated piping and complex controls system.
[0005] The present invention proposes to overcome incapacity to accommodate a wide range of climatic circumstances, particularly with regard to solar heating potential and flexible heating capacity.
[0006] The existing heating systems experience incapacity to accommodate a wide range of climatic circumstances, particularly with regard to solar heating potential. Furthermore, the existing designs technology ignore the variations in sunshine levels in various places in favor of meeting set heating demands. The solar irradiation varies with altitude and geographic location on the earth. Even though the irradiation level increases with altitude but the decrease in temperature is more dominant in the troposphere layer due to the greenhouse effect of the earth. For example, at the equator water will boil with very small solar water heater due to high ambient temperature, while at high altitude region large solar heater will be required due to extremely low ambient temperature. Therefore, an expandable heat exchanger can be more effective in such locations that can provide the heating capacity as required by adjusting the number of expandable units in a heat exchanger.
[0007] A major drawback in the existing heat exchanger systems is the lack of adaptability, which makes it difficult to transport and install them in pre-existing structures. The difficulty increases when trying to standardize solar space heating system size since it depends on the dimensions of the room or structure and the particular heating needs. Given that variations in altitude need modifications to the heat exchanger's capacity, a dynamic solution is clearly required.
[0008] Furthermore, current technology aims to incorporate rigidly fixed bulky systems. The design and fabrication of such devices is also challenging. Due to unforeseen fault or damage to any intricate part exploits whole system, this reduces the lifespan of the devices.
[0009] The existing devices require heavy transportation facilities due to the complex geometry of the integrated systems. Especially at challenging high-altitude terrain, the existing systems may become unfeasible due to their unreasonably high cost in transportation due to uncertainty in the weather at such locations. As such, the state of technology today falls short in addressing pressing issues in the actual world. Therefore, there is an urgent need of a modular design of heat exchanger systemts which overcomes the problems existing in the prior art.
[0010] CN104006550A discloses a solar energy air heat collector that includes an air header and a vacuum tube that are arranged perpendicular to the air header axis. The air header is equipped with the blast pipe communicating with the cold wind runner and the discharge pipe communicating with the hot blast runner. Described vacuum tube is an end opening, the blind pipe of one end sealing, and is arranged in parallel with the hot blast runner and the described cold wind runner. be equipped with a cooling air duct that is open on both ends, with the vacuum tube's blind end being forced into one end of the duct while the other end is connected to the cold wind runner.
[0011] In this patent reference, the intricacies and full functionality of the invention are not comprehensible to a person skilled in art to design solar air-drying system. Additionally, this patent reference lacks detailed quantitative explanations of the invention's design and its effectiveness. Moreover, it doesn’t provide the expandability feature.
[0012] CN102980238A discloses a solar air heater described as the glass tube with vacuum interlayer, described glass tube with vacuum is positioned at outdoor, described heat pipe's evaporator section is located at the chamber of glass tube with vacuum, and described heat pipe's condensation segment is located at the solar air heat collection heating system specifically disclosed in this patent reference.
[0013] This patent reference failed to instruct or inspire a trained craftsperson to design the solar air heating cum drying system for their best applicability and effectiveness. Additionally, the patent reference lacks the expandability feature hence it cannot provide the flexible heating by altering the number of collector tube.
[0014] IN201811044295 discloses a vacuum tube-based manifold that includes non-vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes in a concentric arrangement, a fan that is connected to the entrance of the manifold, and a collection chamber that is connected to the other end of the manifold. The present invention additionally includes a method for heating air, which comprises passing the air through vacuum tubes, heating the air passing through the tubes with solar radiation, and passing the heated air through the tubes with a fan into a collecting chamber.
[0015] This patent reference does not provide any quantitative information on the effectiveness of the heat exchanger device and also it contains several elements of electronic units making the system according to this patent reference, complex and depends on frequent maintenance increasing the cost of the invention. It has fixed number of collector units making it bulky and non-expandable.
[0016] It is therefore evident that there exists a problem in the prior art owing to the lack of availability of an apparatus for air heating which is less complex and easier to assemble. There is a lack of a solar air heat collection heating system which can utilize solar energy effectively and efficiently at low operational costs and at higher altitudes.
[0017] The present invention, on the other hand, presents a universal extensible feature used as solar heat exchanger that is made to easily fit into any application and have variable heating capacity through expandable feature.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION:
[0018] It is an object of the present invention which has been engineered to maximize the service life of the whole system through an expandable feature that allow the parts to be replaceable in case of fault or damage in any of the part of the system.
[0019] Expandability is the key feature of this state-of-the-art heat exchanger. It is an object of the present invention to easily accommodate an adjustable number of heating units, enabling the attainment of the necessary heating capacity. This unique capability makes it versatile for a wide range of applications, particularly for space heating in low-temperature regions at high altitudes.
[0020] It is an objective of the present invention to control the heating capacity or the mass flow rate of hot air by adjusting the number of heating unit by adjusting the number of expandable units.
[0021] It is an objective of the present invention to provide less maintenance than conventional systems since the parts can be assembled, disassembled and replaced in case of fault in any part of the heating system rather than replacing the whole unit. Over time, this lowers maintenance costs and downtime with improved service life.
[0022] It is an objective of the present invention to provide easy transportation at high altitude at high altitude terrain. The symmetrical units are easily assembled together to provide easy installation at such challenging locations.
[0023] It is an objective of the present invention to provide versatile application. The universal feature of the expandability in the present invention can be employed to any of the devices where variable capacity is required and portability is an issue specially in solar air heat exchanger. These devices can be redesigned based on the modularity of the components and flexibility of the device can be improved by incorporating the expandability feature.

SUMMARY
[0024] The present disclosure provides an expandible feature that is applied in various heating devices but not limited. In the present example, the solar heating devices harness the solar radiation to heat the air or any other fluids for various heating applications. A very cost effective solar-based expandable air heating apparatus is described in this patent, which makes use of cutting-edge technology to design and fabricate the solar based heat exchanger, which is simple in design, flexible in heating capacity and can be easily transportable and installable to a high-altitude location without affecting the performance of the device.
[0025] The present invention relates to expandable feature that can be better understand by the example of air heat exchanger that contains a storage chamber/compartment (10) at the top and plurality of parallelly arranged heating tubes (9). The storage chamber (10) comprises two concentric tubes to separate the cold and hot fluid. The inner tube (8) provides passage to the cold air ingestion through the inlet port (13), into the tubular inner passage (11), the cold air directed into the heat observing tube (9). The hot (7) and cold (8) header chamber are in airtight connection with start unit (3), expandable unit (5) and exit unit (5) with the help of push fit bush assembly. The cold from all the units travels into the solar collector tube. Finally, the hot air from the collector tubes reaches back into the header compartment but in the outer shell (12), and then the hot air pumped out through the outlet port (14).
[0026] In the present example of expandability, the solar heat exchanger become expandable with simpler design and operate at best without affecting the performance. The expandable feature in the present example of solar air heat exchanger makes it more reliable due to modular design which make it easy assembly and disassembly during transportation and installation. With the expandable feature in heat exchanger, it can have flexible heating capacity and also long operational life.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
[0027] The present invention will be described in more detail hereinafter with the aid of the accompanying drawings. The drawings are illustrative of one or more embodiments of the invention and do not in any manner limit the scope.
[0028] To understand the expandability feature better, the fundamental design configuration of the air heat exchanger is illustrated in the following figures.
[0029] Figures 1 is the isometric view of device shows the expanded view of the heat exchanger.
[0030] Figure 2 depicts the different view of the expanded heat exchanger and its arrangement.
[0031] Figure 3 depicts the side view of complete heat exchanger system,
[0032] Figure 4 represents the dis-assembled components of the heat exchanger from the top.
[0033] Figure 5 represents the major components of the present invention in isometric view.
[0034] Figure 6 represents a graph identifying the difference in observed parameters of two working example embodiments according to present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
[0035] The following description illustrates various embodiments of the present invention and ways of implementation. The embodiments described herein are not intended to be limited to the disclosure and that the same is in no way a limitation. The invention may be embodied in different forms without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure.
[0036] It is also to be understood that the specific device and method illustrated in the attached drawings, and described in the following specification are simply exemplary embodiments of the inventive concepts defined in the appended claims. Specific dimensions and/or other physical characteristics relating to the embodiments disclosed herein are therefore not to be considered as limiting, unless the claims expressly state otherwise.
[0037] Further, reference numerals are used only as an aid to explain the invention and they do not in any matter restrict the scope of the invention.
[0038] In a preferable embodiment, the present invention relates to the design and fabrication of an expandable feature for a heat exchanger that can be employed in any types of heat exchanger. The expandability feature introduces modularity in the existing heat exchanger making the whole units to be divided into number of subunits. The present invention describes the expandability feature using the example of solar air heater that will operate by harnessing the solar radiation utilising the advanced solar energy technology.
[0039] Complex sensor-based controls are now optional and no longer necessary to this state-of-the-art technology, which lets users select and adjust the necessary heating capacity. The present invention discloses a dependable solution that can adeptly handle the complexity of real-world applications while preserving efficiency and affordability. Its versatility and adaptability provide a practical and cost-effective approach to satisfying different heating demands.
[0040] The present invention introduces an expandable feature in solar-based air heating devices, which is not disclosed in the existing systems. The present invention discloses a specific design of the heat exchanger with concentric tubes to separate hot and cold fluids, as well as the modular construction for easy assembly and disassembly.
[0041] The present invention addresses the need for cost-effective, flexible, and easily transportable solar heating solutions, particularly in high-altitude locations.
[0042] Generally referring to Figures 1-5, the present invention discloses an expandable heat exchanger. The expandable feature is categorised into two major groups namely the Header compartment (10) which is perpendicularly mounted on heating tubes (9). The Heating tubes (9) are parallelly arranged tubes inclined to the ground and assembled with the header compartment.
[0043] Referring to Figure 5, the present invention discloses a heat exchanger system comprising a base structure (15) to support the heat exchanger unit.
[0044] The heat exchanger unit comprises of the header compartment (10) and the Evacuating solar collector tube (ETC)/heating tube/glass tube (9) where the solar radiation is concentrated to entrap the thermal energy and minimize the heat loss through radiation.
[0045] The ETC tubes (9), in a preferred embodiment, are concentric glass tube to maintain the vacuum in between them. The inner side of the heating tube (9) is coated with selective coating to reduce the thermal emission. One end of the heating tube (9) is preferably on the ground and the other end being distal to the ground and placed at an inclination.
[0046] In a preferred embodiment, the heating tubes (9) are a plurality of manifold of tubes.
[0047] At the other end of the heating tubes (9), there is located a header compartment/chamber (10), which is further categorised into three groups namely start/inlet unit (3), expandable/intermediate unit (5) and end/outlet unit (4). All the three unit are joined through the push fit bushes (6) without obstructing the flow path of the fluid.
[0048] The inlet unit (3) is a fixed header compartment attached with the inlet port (13) at one end and configured with push-fit coupling (6) at the other end. There is an outlet unit (4) located at opposite to the inlet unit (3), consisting of an outlet port (14). The outlet unit (4) is a fixed header compartment attached with the inlet section (13) at one end and provision of push-fit coupling (6) at other end, with plurality of manifold for ETC tubes (9).
[0049] The input port (13) and the output port (14) of the extreme units (3 and 4) are specifically built for flow passage, allowing just one tube to open while restricting the flow of the other tube by the end caps.
[0050] In a preferred embodiment, the header compartment (10) and heating tubes (9) are assembled together as a single unit through tight push fit.
[0051] Each unit (3, 4, 5) in the present invention can have N number of evacuating tube collector/heating tubes (9). Depending on circumstances or requirement, flexible number of evacuating tube collector/heating tubes (9) are used for specific requirement. Here, N can be any number of units between 1 to 5. In an example embodiment, the number of evacuating tube collector/heating tubes (9) have been identified to be 3.
[0052] Similarly, the number of expandable unit (5) can also be varied. In one example embodiment, identified in Figure 1, there is disclosed a single expandable unit (5); whereas in another example embodiment, as visualised in Figure 2, the number of expandable unit (5) is 3. The number of expandable units determines the heating capacity of the heat exchanger. As the number of expandable units increases the heating capacity increases. For high altitude location high heating capacity is required. Hence, the number of expandable units can be increased in such locations; whereas, a smaller number of expandable units are required in locations of temperate zone. It should be noted that increasing the number of expandable units may leads to increased mass flow rates. The mass flow rate can be controlled with externally or internally mounted fan.
[0053] Referring to Figure 1, there is provided an endcap (1) and endcap (2), which are linkages provided at the inlet unit (3) and the outlet unit (4) respectively.
[0054] Referring to Figures 2 and 4, the inlet unit (3), the outlet (4) and the intermediate expandable unit (5) are disclosed in detail. As disclosed in the said figures, the inlet unit (3) and the outlet unit (4) are fixed units, forming the extremities of the top portion of the heat exchanger unit.
[0055] Referring to Figure 3, the two concentric hollow tubes (7 and 8) disclose an inner view of the fixed units (3, 4) and the expandable unit (5). The outer tube (7) is built for the passage of hot fluid, while the inner tube (8) offers passage for cold fluid. Between the two tubes (7, 8) there is a first passage (12) for travel of hot fluid. Within the second tube (8), there is provided a second passage (11) for travel of cold fluid.
[0056] The outer tube (7) is made of insulating material to reduce the conductive heat loss from the tube surface to the surrounding, similarly the inner tube as well requires to be less conductive because it may conduct heat from hot compartment to cold compartment itself which is undesirable.
[0057] In a working model, cold fluid enters the inner/second passage (11) through the inlet port (13) in the inlet unit (3) and travels to the outlet port (14) of the outlet unit (4) circulating through all expandable unit(s) (5) which are linked together with the help of locking mechanism. The cold fluid from the inner tube (8) is directed into the heating tubes (9). The heated fluid from all the plurality of heating tubes (9) arranged parallelly, travels back into the header compartment but through the outer hot fluid passage (12) of the header compartment (10). Since all the three units (3, 4, 5) are connected together through coupling bush, the hot fluid travels seamlessly and is finally pumped out through the outlet port (14).
[0058] The endcap (2) shuts the cold flow channel and opens the hot fluid passage to be pumped out through the outlet port (14), whereas endcap (1) restricts the flow of hot fluid passage at inlet port (13) and allows entrance of cold fluid.
[0059] The intermediate units (5) or expandible units, which may be attached with several units depending on the required heating capacity for different applications, are expandable in contrast to the extreme units (3 and 4) which are fixed. The intermediate expandable units are assembled together through coupling bush (6).
[0060] The coupling bush (6) facilitates easy assembly and dis-assembly for ease of transportation or during the maintenance. Two sizes of similar type of bush are used to join the inner (8) and outer (7) compartments. The internal bush (6b) connects the internal/cold compartment (8) while the external/outer bush (6a) connects the external/hot compartment (7). The coupling bush is designed in such a way that one half of the bush gets inserted into one compartment while other half into second compartment. The one side of the bush can be welded for stronger fitting.
[0061] To encourage the expendability feature in solar space heating devices, in the present example of the solar air heat exchanger, experimental test was conducted in the real field of high-altitude location.
[0062] In the experimental setup two different set of experiment were conducted to assess the performance of the expandable heat exchanger. In a first example embodiment, a heat exchanger with three intermediate/expandable units were used. Whereas in the second example embodiment, a heat exchanger with two intermediate units were used.
[0063] In the first example embodiment, each unit (3, 4, 5) was provided with three heating tubes (9) respectively. The experiment was conducted during sunshine hours from 09:00 AM to 03:00 PM at regular interval with 15 collectors.
[0064] In the second example embodiment, while maintain a similar setup, the number of collectors reduced to 12.
[0065] The heat observed in the hot air is measured at the outlet of the heat exchanger for both cases and respective results were compared as shown in the Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison of heat output for two cases.
Time 9:00AM 10:00AM 11:00AM 12:00PM 01:00PM 02:00PM 3:00PM
Q15Tube(W) 53.3662 118.5226 130.0026 147.0673 150.7906 151.7214 145.516
Q12Tube (W) 51.02958 109.6704 117.0023 135.3606 134.7115 136.5492 131.964

[0066] The compared results demonstrate that by decreasing the one expandable unit shows significant decrease in the heating capacity as nearly 10% heat reduction is observed.
[0067] It is observed that in both cases maximum heating capacity is achieved around 01:00 PM when the sunshine level is maximum as shown in the Graph, illustrated in Figure 6.
[0068] The result also suggests that there is significant increase in Qout of the air at the outlet due to increased number of expandable units. Hence the experimental results propose to use the expandability feature in the present example of expandable heat exchanger for flexible heating requirement applications by adjusting the number of expandable units.

ADVANTAGES
[0069] The present invention discloses a heat exchanger with modularity feature, allowing effortless assembly and disassembly feature. This modularity empowers users to adapt and customize the design as per their specific energy requirements, thus ensuring a high degree of flexibility and versatility in various applications.
[0070] Due to its expandability, the present invention offers precise control over the volume flow rate or mass flow rate of hot air by simply adjusting the number of heating units employed in the expandable component. This inherent scalability enables the attainment of customizable and precisely controllable heating, meeting specific requirements with ease.
[0071] The modularity further increases the flexibility, the adaptability, the scalability, and the reusability of the devices.
[0072] Furthermore, the expandability feature provides easy manufacturing of complex geometry into smaller number of parts. Also, the modularity increases the equipment’s life by simple repair, maintenance, and recycling of the product increases the service life. Thus, offering a more reliable and cost-effective operation.
[0073] The modular construction, can be easily assembled and disassembled, ensuring straightforward installation and facilitating hassle-free transportation.
[0074] This cutting-edge modular design and fabrication method is the best option for our needs because it not only raises sustainability but also increases equipment life, reduces maintenance costs, without affecting the performance of the heating device. Due to significant Utilisation of each part, the end result ensures a beneficial environmental impact.
[0075] The invention as described above refers to a preferred embodiment. Naturally, while the principle of the invention remains the same, the details of construction and the embodiments may widely vary with respect to what has been described and illustrated purely by way of the example, without departing from the scope of the present invention. , Claims:WE CLAIM:

1. A heat exchanger unit, comprising:
A Header unit (10), further comprising:
An inlet unit (3);
An outlet unit (4); and
An expandable unit (5);
At-least two heating tubes (9) for each of the inlet unit (3), the expandable unit (5) and the outlet unit (4);
Wherein the inlet unit (3), expandable unit (5) and the outlet unit (4) are connected to each other by a locking mechanism (6) to form a single header unit (10);
Wherein the header unit (10) and the heating tubes (9) are connected to form a single unit.

2. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the locking mechanism (6) is a coupling bush.

3. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the header unit (10) comprises of a first tube (7) for passage of hot fluid and a second tube (8) for passage of cold fluid.

4. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first tube (7) and the second tube (8) are arranged concentrically;
Wherein the first tube (7) is the outer tube; and
Wherein the second tube (8) is the inner tube.

5. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein between the first tube (7) and the second tube (8) a passage (12) is created for hot fluid flow.

6. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein a cold fluid flow through only the first tube (7).

7. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second tube (8) is connected to the header tube (10) through an inner bush (6b).

8. The heat exchanger unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first tube (7) is connected to the header tube (10) through an outer bush (6a)