Pro/Forums - View Single Post - More fin area to compensate for thicker rad?

Becks · 11-08-2004, 03:14 PM

The optimal thickness of a radiator is around 1"... at least with weak fans.

Looking at the thermochill rads, or blackice ones too i guess, they're thin, however the fin area isn't all that great. IE 120x120mm fin area thats 1 inch thick vs a heatercore thats 170x170mm fin area and 2 inches thick... do the 2 cancel eachother out? The 14400mm^2 vs 28900mm^2... twice the fin is about 1/2 the resistance and twice the thickness is twice the resistance... does it work out that nicely?

Also does it matter how much airflow is tring to be pushed though? I'm looking at a fan that'd be pushing 10-15CFM in freeair... does the less air you try to move make the resistance affect it less?

Also holding a heatercore horizontal... does heat rising add up to anything? The deltaT is probably 10C or so between the water and air. I know exact numbers arn't really possible but can they ever add up to anything worthwhile? I mean even if .5CFM moved though the rad on its own thats 5% of what the fans would be doing.

11-08-2004, 03:14 PM	#1
Becks Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Cali Posts: 13	More fin area to compensate for thicker rad? The optimal thickness of a radiator is around 1"... at least with weak fans. Looking at the thermochill rads, or blackice ones too i guess, they're thin, however the fin area isn't all that great. IE 120x120mm fin area thats 1 inch thick vs a heatercore thats 170x170mm fin area and 2 inches thick... do the 2 cancel eachother out? The 14400mm^2 vs 28900mm^2... twice the fin is about 1/2 the resistance and twice the thickness is twice the resistance... does it work out that nicely? Also does it matter how much airflow is tring to be pushed though? I'm looking at a fan that'd be pushing 10-15CFM in freeair... does the less air you try to move make the resistance affect it less? Also holding a heatercore horizontal... does heat rising add up to anything? The deltaT is probably 10C or so between the water and air. I know exact numbers arn't really possible but can they ever add up to anything worthwhile? I mean even if .5CFM moved though the rad on its own thats 5% of what the fans would be doing.