[SOLVED] What happens if you drop a water droplet on cpu heatsink? (Curious) Can we engineer such system?

[wabale97]

What if we add a mechanical system to the cooler which drops small droplets of water (Or any cheap and good coolant) on a heatsink engineered such a way that it will evaporate in few second.

 

[jsmithepa]

We have water-cooled systems, just like in a car, with radiator and everything.

Why rely on droplets when u can run continous water stream though heatsink?

 

[uguv]

Phase change cooling systems exist, but are generally very expensive.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/3317-phase-change-cooler-and-novec-cooling-der8auer-phase-shift

 

[TJ Hooker]

Even many regular PC coolers technically take advantage of boiling water, in that they have heat pipes that rely on water evaporating at one end of the pipe and condensing at the other in order to maximise heat transfer to the heatsink fins.

 

[hang-the-9]

What if we add a mechanical system to the cooler which drops small droplets of water (Or any cheap and good coolant) on a heatsink engineered such a way that it will evaporate in few second.

Really bad idea, you will need to constantly fill the tank, and you will also need to make sure system is mounted only one way or water will totally miss the heatsink. It's like water cooling without the enclosure.

It will evaporate in less than a few seconds also.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Phase change cooling systems exist, but are generally very expensive.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/3317-phase-change-cooler-and-novec-cooling-der8auer-phase-shift

that's a really interesting concept...except...i think that's the same principle heat pipes work on isn't it?

 

[TJ Hooker]

that's a really interesting concept...except...i think that's the same principle heat pipes work on isn't it?

Sure looks that way.

 

[USAFRet]

What if we add a mechanical system to the cooler which drops small droplets of water (Or any cheap and good coolant) on a heatsink engineered such a way that it will evaporate in few second.

You'd need functionality to change the rate of "drops per second".
A drop/sec rate low enough to allow full evaporation at idle would be not enough at full load when things are hotter.

And as the drops boil off the hot surface of the fins, you're creating steam inside the case.
Not good.

 

[InvalidError]

There is a simple system to meter water so it only goes out as fast as it can evaporate, it is called a wick.

As pointed out above, heat pipes operate on a similar principle, albeit in a closed loop: the hot end in contact with the CPU, a cool end in the fin stack, and wick material on the walls to move condensed liquid from the cold end back to the hot end through capillary action. Passive closed-loop phase-change cooling in a tube.