Patent ID: 8899073

Claim:
A refrigerant storage device comprising: a first end plate; a second end plate spaced apart from the first end plate; at least three barrier plates interposed between the first end plate and the second end plate, wherein the first end plate, the second end plate and the at least three barrier plates have a rectangular shape and are arranged in parallel thereby comprising a stacking arrangement; wherein each of the first end plate, the second end plate, and the at least three barrier plates are spaced apart to define a plurality of cavities and each of the at least three barrier plates nests adjacent barrier plates to form a perimeter seal effective to contain refrigerant within the device, wherein each cavity defines an inlet opening and an outlet opening spaced apart from the inlet opening; wherein refrigerant enters the refrigerant storage device via the inlet opening, said refrigerant is distributed along aligned holes in the at least three barrier plates, and the refrigerant flows in parallel in a downward direction through all the cavities, liquid refrigerant accumulates in a lower region of the storage device, and the cavities are sized relative to the inlet opening such that a cavity velocity of refrigerant in each cavity is substantially less than an inlet velocity of refrigerant in the inlet opening; and a turbulator plate arranged within at least one cavity of the plurality of cavities reinforcing the at least one cavity by providing a plurality of reinforcement portions between the plates that define the at least one cavity, wherein the turbulator plate is further configured such that a liquid portion of refrigerant flowing through the cavity collects onto the turbulator plate.