Possible Rad Testing Procedure

[Les]

Originally Posted by Incoherent

Not quite sure how to approach it, might just be to sum the Cp's. I am not sure they are particularly significant especially with a decent volume.
Perhaps best to take it as a relative number for comparing radiators in the same system, the secondary heat capacities are then just a constant. Annoying, I prefer absolutes.

Yes, probably has to be an experimental approach.
For what it is worth:-
My predicted Heat Capacity of 120x120x30 Cu radiator ~ 650 j/c
10 litre System Water Heat Capacity ~ 42,000 j/c
~1.5% error

[MaxxxRacer]

well incoherent, you cant get rid of constants.. they will always be there.. and in our case they arnt going to kill anything for us as we are doing relative testing 99 percent of the time. even with the exact same setup its hard to believe that we will get the same results from someone just 5 miles away.

whats key here is that the results are consistent for your own test rig.

Especially considering that no one actually does the test procedure that you have created here for us. if a bunch of ppl did then we could make a standarized test right with the exact same fittings, tube lenghts, tube type, res, pump and so forth. force everyone who wanted to do these test to use the exact same gear. with that, we could then get a very good comparison between test rigs. but it is unlikely at best to get ppl to agree to do this for one and secondly to actually buy all the gear.

[Incoherent]

It's my opinion that you don't need identical test beds to generate absolute comparable data - you just have to know the properties of what you do have.
Unfortunately at this point there are still rather a lot of unknowns, so relative measurements are often all that can be obtained, especially with the uncertainties of (lack of) calibration.

[MaxxxRacer]

calibration is one of the big gripes with all of this. how exactly can you calibrate you cpu or ur gpu... cant exactly send it off to get NIST certified...

but to be honest getting comparable data isnt going to be as useful as we thing. i mean look at the number of reviewers. how many of them follow good procedure. almost none. and most even say their results are not comparable with others. since they say this so often most ppl including myself would never even think of comparing temps from another reivew, much less anyone else.. so by now most of us realize that temps arent comparable. granted trying to make comparable test setups would be a worthy cause, but not one that many reviewers would be willing to undertake by any means.