1. A method for heat exchange between a first shell-side fluid stream at mean pressure p1 and a second shell-side fluid stream at mean pressure p2, said method using
a first set of serially connected thermally isolated cross-flow exchanger cores for transfer of heat between an intermediary tube-side heat transfer fluid (HTF) and the first shell-side stream,
a second set of serially connected thermally isolated cross-flow exchanger cores for transfer of heat between the HTF and the second shell-side stream,
said HTF characterized as being substantially liquid phase throughout all cores and having critical temperature not less than 370 K,
wherein a core is characterized as comprising at least one row of finned tubes,
said finned tubes are further characterized in that the length of the tube fins per row in the shell-side flow direction is typically less than 80 mm and the fin pitch is typically less than 8 mm.
2. The method of 1 further characterized as having more than 4 thermally isolated cores exchanging with each shell-side stream and having effectiveness \u03b5 greater than 60% at design operating conditions.
3. The method of 1 in which said shell-side fluids are further characterized as selected from the set comprised of organic liquids having viscosity greater than 1 cP at 310 K and gases at pressure greater than 0.05 MPa.
4. The method of 1 where said HTF is further characterized as having flow rate GL kgs, specific heat CPL Jkg-K,
and WL=GLCPL,
said first shell-side fluid has flow rate G1, specific heat CP1, and W1=G1CP1,
said second shell-side fluid has flow rate G2, specific heat CP2, and W2=G2CP2,
said geometric mean shell-side conditions defined by WS=(W1W2)0.5,
said tube-side conditions further characterized in that WL>0.7 WS and WL<1.4 WS.
5. The method of 1 further characterized in that said HTF is selected from the set comprised of water, organics, molten alloys, and molten salts and is further characterized as having FD greater than 2E5 J2(s-m4-K2-cP) at the mean operating temperature, where
FD=kt\u03c1CP\u03bc,
where kt is in Wm-K, \u03c1CP is in Jm3-K, and \u03bc is in cP.
6. The method of 1 further characterized in that said tube-side HTF has FD greater than the lesser of the FD of either of the shell-side streams by more than a factor of 10 at mean operating conditions.
7. The method of 5 further characterized in that each of said shell-side streams has FD less than 2E5 J2(s-m4-K2-cP) at the operating conditions.
8. The method of 1 further characterized as including a plurality of liquid pumps and liquid reservoirs for circulation of a plurality of HTFs.
9. The method of 1 in which said HTF is further characterized as substantially selected from the set comprised of polyphenyl ethers, polyol esters, polyalphaolefins, phosphate esters, phthalates, silicones, fluorocarbons, polymer esters, organic liquid mixtures that include alkylated polynuclear aromatics, and engine oils.
10. The method of 9 further characterized as including a liquid reservoir with overhead gas space, said gas having H2 partial pressure greater than 0.01 MPa, O2 partial pressure less than 1 kPa, H2O partial pressure less than 10 kPa, and total pressure greater than 0.15 MPa.
11. The method of 1 in which said HTF is further characterized as substantially comprised of a lead-bismuth-tin alloy.
12. The method of 1 further characterized in that the mean pressure in said HTF is between 50% and 200% of the mean of p1 and p2.
13. The method of 1 wherein one of said shell-side fluids is further characterized as an organic solvent containing a dissolved gas that effervesces when the fluid is heated, and means are included between cores for separating the effervesced gas from the liquid.
14. The method of 1 wherein one of said shell-side fluids is further characterized as a gas containing a vapor that condenses when the fluid is cooled, with means for draining the condensed liquid from a core.
15. The method of 1 in which said HTF is further characterized as an organic liquid, and means are included for separation of reaction products from said HTF.
16. The method of 1 further characterized in that p2 is greater than 3p1 and the typical fin pitch in said second set of cores is less than 70% of the typical fin pitch in said first set of cores.
17. The method of 1 further characterized as including transverse passages between thermally isolated cores to equilibrate shell-side pressures across the faces of said cores, wherein cores are considered thermally isolated if fewer than 30% of the fins are continuous between adjacent cores in the shell-side flow direction and the tube pattern is not interleaved between adjacent cores.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for reading at least one of analog and digital data stored in fields on a microform by means of a device for accessing the microform which is connected to a data processing system by a hardware interface, the method comprising:
reading, by a control unit of the device, the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform; and
presenting, by the control unit, the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform to the data processing system as if the microform were a conventional removable data storage medium, and one of:
when the microform includes exclusively analog data, generating, by the control unit, a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data acquired by a complete scan of the microform and storing the file system in a memory of the control unit;
when the microform includes one of exclusively digital data and digital and analog data, reading by the control unit information on the structure and type of data storage from one of a format field identifiable on the microform and from at least one of the digital data fields, generating from the information on the structure and type of data storage a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory of the control unit; and
when the microform includes exclusively analog data, reading by the control unit information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data from a format field identifiable on the microform, generating from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory (RAM) of the control unit.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
conducting a first scan of the microform present in the device at least in a predetermined area of the microform;
if no format field is found during the first scan, assuming, by the control unit that the microform contains exclusively analog data, and
when the microform includes exclusively analog data, generating, by the control unit, a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data acquired by a complete scan of the microform and storing the file system in a memory of the control unit;
if a format field is found during the first scan, assuming by the control unit that the microform contains one of exclusively digital data, digital and analog data, or exclusively analog data, and
wherein, when the microform includes one of exclusively digital data and digital and analog data, reading by the control unit information on the structure and type of data storage from one of a format field identifiable on the microform and from at least one of the digital data fields, generating from the information on the structure and type of data storage a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory of the control unit; and
wherein when the microform includes exclusively analog data, reading by the control unit information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data from a format field identifiable on the microform, generating from the information on the arrangement and number of fields containing analog data a file system corresponding to a removable data storage medium, and storing the file system in the memory (RAM) of the control unit.
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
upon receipt of a read command from the data processing system requesting data, determining by the control unit whether the requested data are already in the memory of the control unit;
if the requested data are already in the memory of the control unit, then sending by the control unit the requested data to the data processing system;
if the requested data are not in the memory of the control unit, then determining by the control unit which individual fields of the microform must be scanned to acquire the requested data based on the file system, and executing a scan of the individual fields; and
converting by the control unit the at least one of analog and digital data of the microform acquired during the scan of individual fields into a data format conforming to the generated file system and sending the at least one of analog and digital data of the microform acquired during the scan of individual fields as output to the data processing system.
4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
upon receipt of a read command from the data processing system requesting data, determining by the control unit whether the requested data are already in the memory of the control unit;
if the requested data are already in the memory of the control unit, then sending by the control unit the requested data to the data processing system;
if the requested data are not in the memory of the control unit, then determining by the control unit which individual fields of the microform must be scanned to acquire the requested data based on the file system, and executing a scan of the individual fields; and
converting by the control unit the at least one of analog and digital data of the microform acquired during the scan of individual fields into a data format conforming to the generated file system and sending the at least one of analog and digital data of the microform acquired during the scan of individual fields as output to the data processing system.
5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
upon receipt of a write command from the data processing system, determining by the control unit whether a writable microform is present in the device, and
if a writable microform is present, then writing data transferred from the data processing system to the device onto the microform.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the conventional removable data storage medium is selected from the group of storage media including magnetic storage media, optical storage media, magneto-optical storage media, and flash EEPROM storage media.
7. A device for accessing a microform with at least one of analog and digital data stored in fields, the device comprising:
a unit for drawing the microform into a receiving slot of the device and ejecting the microform from the receiving slot;
at least one scanning unit for scanning the microform received in the device, the scanning unit comprising at least one electromagnetic radiation source arranged on one side of the microform and at least one electronic sensor on an opposing side of the microform, said at least one electronic sensor converting the different degrees of transparency of the microfiche film of the microform to the electromagnetic radiation into electrical signals; and
a program-controlled control unit configured to receive the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microfilm acquired by the scanning unit and to present the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform to a data processing system (PC) in the form of data on a conventional removable data storage medium, wherein the control unit comprises a read-only memory; a working memory, which simultaneously serves as a memory for the data to be read in from the microform and for a file system; a nonvolatile, rewritable memory for the control program of the control unit; and the following peripheral components:
a CCD peripheral component for reading the sensor signals of the scanning unit, for assigning the sensor signals to an associated reading location, and for storing the sensor signals in the working memory;
an LED peripheral component for controlling a brightness of the at least one electromagnetic radiation source; and
an IO peripheral component for controlling the unit for drawing in and ejecting the microform and for controlling the drive which moves the scanning unit.
8. The device according to claim 7, further comprising a writing unit controlled by the control unit for writing data onto the microform which can be drawn into the receiving slot.
9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the control unit further comprises a LASER peripheral component for controlling the writing unit.
10. The device according to claim 7, wherein the conventional removable data storage medium is selected from the group of storage media including magnetic storage media, optical storage media, magneto-optical storage media, and flash EEPROM storage media.
11. A microform with at least one of analog and digital data stored in fields receivable in a device comprising:
a unit for drawing the microform into a receiving slot of the device and ejecting the microform from the receiving slot;
at least one scanning unit for scanning the microform received in the device, the scanning unit comprising at least one electromagnetic radiation source arranged on one side of the microform and at least one electronic sensor on an opposing side of the microform, said at least one electronic sensor converting the different degrees of transparency of the microfiche film of the microform to the electromagnetic radiation into electrical signals; and
a program-controlled control unit configured to receive the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microfilm acquired by the scanning unit and to present the at least one of analog and digital data stored on the microform to a data processing system (PC) in the form of data on a conventional removable data storage medium, wherein the control unit comprises a read-only memory; a working memory, which simultaneously serves as a memory for the data to be read in from the microform and for a file system; a nonvolatile, rewritable memory for the control program of the control unit; and the following peripheral components:
a CCD peripheral component for reading the sensor signals of the scanning unit, for assigning the sensor signals to an associated reading location, and for storing the sensor signals in the working memory;
an LED peripheral component for controlling a brightness of the at least one electromagnetic radiation source; and
an IO peripheral component for controlling the unit for drawing in and electing the microform and for controlling the drive which moves the scanning unit,
the microform comprising:
a format field identifiable by the scanning unit of the device and at least one field for the storage of the at least one of digital and analog data, wherein the format field comprises information on the structure and type of data storage,
wherein both the format field and the data-storage fields, which have the same shape and size in certain areas, are arranged in rows and columns in a grid, and
wherein the grid comprises the data-storage fields arranged in series in rows or columns for the storage of digital data and fields arranged in series in rows or columns for the storage of analog data; and the format field comprises structure information pertaining at least to the position of the individual fields on the microform, to the number of data-storage fields, to the number of columns and rows of data cells of each field of the data-storage fields, to the arrangement of the first field with analog data, and to the size of the data blocks which can be addressed in the fields for the storage of digital data.
12. The microform according to claim 11, wherein the format field is located in the upper left corner of the grid.