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bobkoure · 08-08-2005, 03:43 PM

So... how is this setup not a heatpipe?
There's state change at the hot end and state change at the cold end (vacuum simply being a way to lower coolant state change temp - one could just as easily use something like butane and a slight positive pressure to, again, get coolant state change temp into a useful range).
Anyway, I'd always thought that this was the way heatpipes worked - many of them now have a wick to move liquid coolant against gravity, but the original ones I'd run into (late '60s) did not and were indeed position sensitive.
Is it that there is an "outbound" and "return" line? AFAICT the only thing that makes the return side a return is that is exits from the lower side of the radiator (which maybe we should be calling a condenser?). And, again, I have this foggy memory that early heatpippes, at least, also had outbound and return lines.

Feel free to point out what I've missed, the error of my ways, etc. - so long as you've got a decent reason why this thing is not kind of a heatpipe.

Thanks!

08-08-2005, 03:43 PM	#38
bobkoure Cooling Savant Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: USA - Boston area Posts: 798	So... how is this setup not a heatpipe? There's state change at the hot end and state change at the cold end (vacuum simply being a way to lower coolant state change temp - one could just as easily use something like butane and a slight positive pressure to, again, get coolant state change temp into a useful range). Anyway, I'd always thought that this was the way heatpipes worked - many of them now have a wick to move liquid coolant against gravity, but the original ones I'd run into (late '60s) did not and were indeed position sensitive. Is it that there is an "outbound" and "return" line? AFAICT the only thing that makes the return side a return is that is exits from the lower side of the radiator (which maybe we should be calling a condenser?). And, again, I have this foggy memory that early heatpippes, at least, also had outbound and return lines. Feel free to point out what I've missed, the error of my ways, etc. - so long as you've got a decent reason why this thing is not kind of a heatpipe. Thanks!