Presureized water cooling?
 

Hi

Just had a thought..

Would running a type of water cooling setup under pressure be possible? If water was at eg. 2 bar would it absorb more heat at the head and release more in the rad?

Forget it! i saw the flaw.. i'm just a bit too tired to be allowed near the keyboard tonight!

No gains for running under pressure as it does not effect the thermal properties at all..

U sure about that??
- I have seen people report good results from pressurizing their system with about 2 bar. Dont know the technical reasons, but it seems to do something. Planning to try it myself at some point..

Water is basically uncompressible, so i doubt it would have any affect at all. If anything it might just force more air into solution with the water.

delta P(ressure) is important, will not change if sys is pressureized

Pressure is important if you're cooling something hot enough to flash-boil water. Even small bubbles of steam can be bad as they insulate - and increasing pressure increases the boiling point.

I don't think we're cooling anything in our PCs that's hot enough for this to be necessary. Not a bad idea for your car, though (assuming it's water-cooled).

Bob

There is one potential benefit, but rarely would it apply. If you have a cavitation problem with your pump then raising the overall system pressure will tend to eliminate it. Since cavitation doesn't happen too often in PC systems, I wouldn't recommend it. The only harm in trying is the added potential for a leak, so if you're OK with that then by all means give it a go and report back.

heatercoreswill bust at anything over 20-25psi, making pressurizing a computer or car system a poor choice

Could use a oil cooler with solid copper pipe.

at what benefit?

Copper pipe will withstand 25+ psi?

But they are pressurized - at least a bit.

Heck, soft copper tubing, 1/2 ID .035" wall is rated at 618 psi @ 100F, so I think the answer is a resounding yes!

However, the JOINTS we sweat, and barbs, and tubing and stuff is much less.

You won't benefit from pressurizing the system. The only reason you need to pressurize a system is if you want to increase the boiling point.

For every 1psi you add to a sealed system you increase the boiling point 3deg.

That is why Car radiators have a pressure cap.