[time-nuts] OT question about liquid cooling

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Wed Oct 3 16:35:04 UTC 2012


5KW of power but that is only 1/4 of the spec.  What temperature will
the loads operate at?  It is quite hard to cool anything to ambient
with water.  The cooler the operating point the larger the heat sink.
Using a very oversize heat exchanger s not unreasonable of you want  a
relative low temperature.

The other side of the loop matters LOT also.  How will you cool the
water?  Do you have chilled water that can run open loop or do you
need to chill and re-cycle the water in a closed loop system.   Then
again temperature matters.  What is the inlet temperature?   How much
flow rate can your system provide.

If you don't wnt to learn a loot about this the easy solultion it to
simply over-spec the components by a large factor.  This also gives
you some margin for accients like a plumbing leak or a pump failure.
Do plan for these practical issues.    When a pump fails the 5KW load
can boil water in the heat exchanger quickly and then your plumbing
comes apart.  To prevent that  use enough water volume and thermal
mass.  Again an over sized heat exchanger is good.  As is a thermal
shutdown switch.   These are cheap and work just like a fuse.  They
open the AC mains power at a set temperature,  you bolt them to the
heat sink.   They are common in high power audio amplifiers.


I don't have experience with a system like you need.  Mine is with
water cooling that involved TEC (thermo electric, or Peltier devices.)
 But I know that you do need to plan for mechanical failures, water
leaks and so on.    Just like with a domestic hot water heaters you
place a basin and drain under them.



On Wed, Oct 3, 2012 at 9:01 AM, Javier Herrero <jherrero at hvsistemas.es> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Please excuse me for the OT, but since this list is plenty of very
> knowledgeable colleagues, I'm tempted to ask...
>
> I need to cool several resistive loads, in the order of 5kW, and I plan to
> use a cold plate and a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger like the Lytron
> LCS-20, but this unit is quite big, and an overkill (it has 20kW
> capability).
>
> If someone could suggest me a smaller liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger, and
> preferably a rack mount unit (and share any experience), it would be most
> welcome.
>
> Since this has not too much to do with time and frequency, please answer off
> list.
>
> Thank you very much! Best regards,
>
> Javier
>
>
>
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-- 

Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California




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