The invention relates to a device for distributing a liquid flow in a number of part-flows, comprising a chamber with an inflow opening and a number of outflow openings corresponding to the number of part-flows. Such a liquid distributing device is already known.

The known distributing device, which is applied for instance in heating systems, particularly for floor heating, comprises an elongate rectangular tube which is connected at one outer end to a feed conduit for a heating medium, generally hot water for the floor heating. Connections for outlet pipes are formed along the whole length of the rectangular tube with equal mutual interspacing. The supplied hot water is distributed through these outlet pipes over a number of loops of the floor heating system. Each loop here forms a cycle and finally carries the water, which has by then cooled, back to a return conduit leading to a heating boiler.

The known liquid distributing device has the drawback that the distribution of the liquid over the different outlet pipes is highly uneven. This occurs mainly because the pressure decreases sharply in the longitudinal direction of the rectangular chamber so that, the further the outlet conduits are situated from the inflow opening, the increasingly smaller amount of liquid that will be delivered to the outlet conduits and the loops of the floor heating system connected thereto.

The invention now has for its object to improve a liquid distributing device of the above described type such that this drawback does not occur, or at least does so to lesser extent. This is achieved according to the invention in that the outflow openings are arranged distributed around the inflow opening. The distance of the inflow opening to each of the outflow openings is in this way the same, so that the pressure drop will also be the same. Each outflow opening will in principle thus receive an equal part of the incoming liquid flow for processing.

For a compact construction of the liquid distributing device it is recommended that the outflow openings are oriented substantially parallel to the inflow opening.

The chamber between the inflow opening and the outflow openings can here comprise a substantially conical outer wall. The length of the path to be covered by each part of the incoming liquid flow is hereby the same, so that the pressure will also be roughly the same in all parts of the device.

In order to obtain favourable flow conditions in the chamber the device is preferably provided with a substantially conical distributing member placed in the chamber between the inflow opening and the outflow openings. A space is thus formed between the conical outer wall and the conical distributing member in which the liquid can be uniformly distributed.

In order to prevent flow losses in the chamber as far as possible, the device is preferably provided with flow guides arranged in the vicinity of the outflow openings.

In a first embodiment of the invention the flow guides are arranged on the inner side of the conical outer wall.

In addition or instead, the flow guides can be arranged on the outer surface of the conical distributing member.

In order to distribute the supplied liquid flow in part-flows in efficient manner, it is recommended that adjacent outflow openings are separated from each other by at least one flow guide on the inner side of the conical outer wall and at least one flow guide on the outer surface of the conical distributing member. The part-flows are thus already formed in the chamber, so before reaching the outflow openings.

The flow guides preferably have an increasing cross-section as seen in the flow direction. A gradual but increasing separation between the part-flows is hereby already brought about in the chamber.

Although the invention could in principle already be applied in the separation of a main flow into two parts-flows, it is recommended that the number of outflow openings amounts to at least three. The greater the number of outflow openings, the more unsatisfactory is the conventional solution with the rectangular conduit, and therefore the more favourable the device according to the invention. The number of outflow openings preferably amounts to at least six, more preferably at least ten and most preferably fifteen or more. The distributing device according to the invention can thus be applied at locations where many conduits come together, for instance the starting and end point of a floor heating system.

In order to enable connection of the distributing device to other physical systems an outflow pipe is preferably connected to each outflow opening. The outflow pipes preferably have different lengths here so that the couplings between the different outflow pipes and the conduits of for instance a floor heating system can be placed at different distances from the chamber. In this way there is sufficient space everywhere for these couplings.

Finally, the invention further relates to a system of a number of liquid distributing devices as described above. According to the invention the inflow opening of one of these distributing devices connects to at least one of the outflow openings of another distributing device. A plurality of distributing devices can thus be connected in series, whereby an incoming liquid flow can be distributed in a large number of outgoing part-flows using relatively simple means.

The distributing devices preferably each have a similar form but differing dimensions. Use can thus be made of an optimized basic design which can then be scaled to the desired dimensions for a determined flow rate. A distributing device lying upstream can thus be given a larger form than devices located further downstream, which do after all receive smaller volume flows to process.

In order to nevertheless guarantee a sufficient flow rate in each conduit, the inflow opening of one of the distributing devices can connect via a manifold to a number of outflow openings of another distributing device.

If a liquid distributing device were to have twelve outflow openings, which is a realistic value in practice, and the distributing device connecting thereto were also to have twelve outflow openings, 144 outflow openings could in principle be connected to a single inflow opening. By combining for instance four part-flows at a time in the manifold a device located upstream could in practice be followed by three distributing devices connected in parallel, whereby in this situation a total of 36 outflow openings could be supplied from a single inflow opening.

The invention is now elucidated on the basis of an embodiment, wherein reference is made to the accompanying drawing, in which:

• Figure 1 is a schematic view of a floor heating system with a prior art liquid distributing device,
• Figure 2 is a perspective view of a liquid distributing device according to the invention,
• Figure 3 is a side view of the distributing device of figure 2,
• Figure 4 is a side view of the device of figures 2 and 3 from another direction,
• Figure 5 is a sectional perspective few of this liquid distributing device,
• Figure 6 shows a longitudinal section through the liquid distributing device,
• Figure 7 shows a cross-section along the line VII-VII in figure 6, and
• Figure 8 shows a system of a number of distributing devices according to the invention connected in series.

A conventional device 101 for distributing a liquid flow in a number of part-flows, which for instance forms part of a floor heating system 100, comprises an elongate rectangular housing 102 having an inflow opening 103 in an end wall and a number of outflow openings 104 - here six - in a side wall (figure 1). Inflow opening 103 is supplied by a feed conduit 114 with a pump 115 therein. Connected to outflow openings 104 are conduits 116 of the floor heating (of which only one is shown). These conduits 116 form loops in a floor and debouch in a manifold device 121 which can be structurally identical to distributing device 101. Manifold device 121 also comprises an elongate housing 122 with six inflow openings 123 in a side wall and a single outflow opening 124 in an end wall.

As stated, the known liquid distributing device 101 has the drawback of an uneven distribution of the liquid over the different outlet conduits 116. Because the pressure in housing 102 decreases as the distance from inflow opening 103 increases, the outflow openings 104 located further from inflow opening 103 and the outlet conduits 116 connecting thereto receive an increasingly smaller quantity of liquid.

Figure 2 shows a liquid distributing device 1 according to the invention in which this drawback does not occur. This distributing device 1 comprises a chamber 2 having on one side an inflow opening 3 and on the opposite side a number of outflow openings 4, in the shown example sixteen. Outflow openings 4 are formed in a bottom 5 of chamber 2 and are arranged distributed around inflow opening 3. Adjacently of bottom 5 the chamber 2 is bounded by a conical outer wall 6 which connects to a cylindrical part 7 defining inflow opening 3.

Further arranged in chamber 2 is a substantially conical distributing member 8 which lies with its base 9 on bottom 5 of the chamber and which is oriented with its tip 10 toward inflow opening 3 (figures 5, 6). In the shown example the height of distributing member 8 is substantially the same as the height of the conical part of outer wall 6, so that outer wall 6 and distributing member 8 in fact define an annular space, the diameter of which increases as seen in the flow direction.

Arranged in the annular space are flow guides 11, 12 which gradually channel the flow in the direction of the individual outflow openings 4. A first series of flow guides 11 is arranged on the inner side of the conical outer wall 6. A second series of flow guides 12 is arranged on the outer surface of the conical distributing member 8. Flow guides 11, 12 have a cross-section increasing as seen in the flow direction of the liquid, whereby they increasingly take on the form of walls of a flow channel. Flow guides 11, 12 have for instance a triangular section, wherein the sides of the triangle in the close vicinity of bottom 5 of chamber 2 will increasingly resemble the peripheral form of outflow openings 4.

Outflow pipes 13 are connected in the shown embodiment to the outflow openings. These outflow pipes 13 have differing lengths in order to create space for the purpose of coupling each pipe 13 to a corresponding outlet conduit (not shown here). In the shown embodiment there are sixteen outflow openings 4, and therefore also sixteen outflow pipes 13 which are connected to sixteen conduits. In the shown embodiment there are pairs of outflow pipes 13 which have the same length, and the adjacent outflow pipes are longer or shorter.

During use the inflow opening 3 is connected to a feed conduit, for instance in the case of floor heating a hot water conduit from a heating device. The single liquid flow LI flowing into device 1 is distributed in a number of part-flows LO at the outlet. This number of part-flows corresponds to the number of outflow openings 4, so here sixteen. Part-flows LO leave device 1 through outflow pipes 13 and are distributed over as many liquid circuits (not shown here) which distribute the heat in the inflowing liquid over the floor.

Since the number of part-flows which can be formed is limited to some extent by the configuration and the size of liquid distributing device 1, it is practical for the purpose of creating a larger number of part-flows to make use of a number of distributing devices according to the invention connected in series (figure 8). In the shown embodiment there is a main distributing device 1, the dimensions of which are relatively large. This main distributing device 1 has twelve outflow openings 4 which do not however all have their own outflow pipe but which supply, per four openings, a shared outflow pipe 13. The main distributing device 1 thus distributes the supplied liquid flow LI in three parts-flows. The three outflow pipes 13, which are to some extent funnel-shaped, are each connected to inflow opening 53 of a secondary distributing device 51. These three secondary distributing devices 51 are identical to the main distributing device 1 in terms of configuration and construction, but take a smaller form. Each secondary distributing device 51 has in turn a large number of outflow openings 54, in the shown embodiment twelve in each case, just as the main distributing device 1. Using this assembly a supplied liquid flow LI can thus be divided into 3 * 12 = 36 part-flows LO.

In this embodiment the flow guides 11, 12 are somewhat more pronounced than in the first embodiment. The conical distributing member 8 is grooved and has an appearance resembling that of a citrus press.

Although the invention is elucidated above on the basis of a number of embodiments, it will be apparent that it is not limited thereto. The shapes and dimensions of the different components can thus be varied. This is particularly the case for the conical shape of the outer side and of the conical distributing member. Other shapes can in principle also be selected for this purpose, be it that these are often structurally somewhat more complex. The distributing device can be manufactured from any material suitable for the relevant liquids. Plastics can be particularly envisaged in respect of the great freedom of design. It is however also readily possible to envisage a version in metal. The device can further also be used to combine a number of part-flows to a single liquid flow when the flow direction through the chamber is reversed. The openings 4 characterized in the examples as outflow openings can then function as inflow openings, while the opening 3 designated as inflow opening then becomes the central outflow opening.

The scope of the invention is therefore defined solely by the following claims.