Heatsinks work better in electrostatic field.

[Circlotron]

For those people that don't like the idea of using a fan on their heatsinks, here's an idea that I came across in the McGraw-Hill "Handbook of Heat Transfer" 3rd edition page 11.52. Apparently an electric field geatly influences the rate of heat transfer between two mediums, i.e. a heatsink and the surrounding air. The idea here is to run a fine wire up and down each of the flutes of your earthed, vertically oriented heatsink and apply to the wire a few KV (via a high impedance for safety) and it improves the heat transfer capability by several hundred percent! Maybe you could put an air ioniser underneath the heatsink instead? It doesn't improve a fan system because any great degree of turbulence upsets things. Disclaimer - I haven't tried it myself.

GP.

 

[jan.didden]

Heatsink & HV

Hi Circlotron,

You are never a man short on ideas, are you?

I find this idea very strange, I can't imagine the process of how this would work (which doesn't mean anything, of course). Could you elaborate on this or post a scan of that particular page?

Jan Didden

 

[AKSA]

Jan,

I suspect our Circlotron is a clever nutter, and I hope to meet him this coming weekend to confirm my suspicions one way or the other.

If he talks like a goon and moves like Jim Carrey, then I'll know for sure...... However, I suspect he's actually very clever.

I'll post my findings!


Cheers,

Hugh

www.aksaonline.com

 

[MRehorst]

I once saw a magazine article (was it Popular Science?) for a DIY fan with no moving parts. It had a screen at one end of an insulating cylinder, and a grid of needles at the other end, pointing towards the screen. A high DC voltage (10 kV or so) was applied with the positive to the screen and the negative to the needles. Result was a moderate amount of air movement and usually some ozone generation. A side effect was dust precipitation requiring frequent cleaning.

I suspect the increased cooling capability of the heatsinks is brought about by the charge induced movement of air, not directly by the charge/field. It doesn't take much air movement to dramatically increase a heat sink's efficiency.

It might make for an interesting experiment, but I think fans are much more practical...

MR