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Wax CPU/APU cooling research

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Negatron

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This is a wired article about some university guys that are researching wax as a coolant for future burst processors. It's pretty cool and maybe the concept can be adapted for use in cooling systems for current/unmodified CPUs and instructions. http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/08/sprinting/

There is a GIF of a current i7 being cooled with nothing but a small amount of wax for a short period of time.
 
There was a guy who made turbo kits for 3g preludes (88-91) that used an intercooler based on that concept. Worked pretty nicely, as you don't generally stay in boost for more than 10-15s or so, then enough cool air is drawn through to freeze the wax again before the next boost is seen.
 
Bobnova said:
There was a guy who made turbo kits for 3g preludes (88-91) that used an intercooler based on that concept. Worked pretty nicely, as you don't generally stay in boost for more than 10-15s or so, then enough cool air is drawn through to freeze the wax again before the next boost is seen.
Click to expand...
Small world. I saw that a while ago myself.

Interesting concept... not sure how it will work on sustained loads though.
 
Poorly, I expect. Once all the wax has melted you loose the massive heatsink of phase change.
 
Bobnova said:
There was a guy who made turbo kits for 3g preludes (88-91) that used an intercooler based on that concept. Worked pretty nicely, as you don't generally stay in boost for more than 10-15s or so, then enough cool air is drawn through to freeze the wax again before the next boost is seen.
Click to expand...

That is cool as hell. I have never heard of a turbo cooler that uses wax. Gotta check that out.
 
why not just use a chunk of copper? i dont see how this would work any better. unless im missing something the wax is absorbing the heat because of its volume? unless the hydro-thermal-dynamics from the liquid paraffin has something to do with it maybe letting it dissipate the heat and absorb it faster?
 
The wax melts, the phase change from solid to liquid absorbs a tremendous amount of heat.
 
yeah sublimation = serious ooomphh
i think it has like 500 times the latent heat capacity as evaporation in the case of water , so several 1000 kJ / BTU more.

Been thinking if there are no better material for it (for home use/experimenting).. something which is "solid" at room temp, but basically skips melting and goes directly into the liquid high end (almost gas) when brutally heated... and frankly, the only thing i can come up with besides parrafin/wax is "i can't believe it's not butter" :shrug:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(phase_transition)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat
 
CO2 :D
Wax doesn't go straight from solid to gas, it goes liquid first. It's that solid to liquid phase change that they're using here.

The trick is finding something that is solid at ~140°f and gas at ~180°f, and giving it somewhere to expand into and then making sure it condenses back to the CPU heat plate.

Solid to liquid is a lot easier to control.
 
dat copper.
and i i dont undersand the blind part..
 
Last edited:
I'm actually working on a thermal storage device that uses wax, but for the opposite reason. The application is to store heat coming off the discharge line of an air conditioner compressor in order to keep the compressor warm when it's not running. In other words, it's a crankcase heater that recycles heat. The design is pretty simple - a thermos full of wax with copper refrigerant and water lines in it and a pump to circulate coolant through a loop of copper tubing thermally bonded to the sump of the compressor.
 
Refrigerant has a tendency to dissolve in the compressor oil when the compressor is not running. When the compressor is later started, the mixture of refrigerant and oil foams up, which is hard on the bearings. Keeping the compressor sump warm when the compressor is not running avoids that and prolongs the life of the compressor.
 
NiHaoMike said:
I'm actually working on a thermal storage device that uses wax, but for the opposite reason. The application is to store heat coming off the discharge line of an air conditioner compressor in order to keep the compressor warm when it's not running. In other words, it's a crankcase heater that recycles heat. The design is pretty simple - a thermos full of wax with copper refrigerant and water lines in it and a pump to circulate coolant through a loop of copper tubing thermally bonded to the sump of the compressor.
Click to expand...

Which variety of air conditioner are you working on?
 
It's a half ton package unit (made out of a modified window unit), water cooled condenser, two stage evaporator with ejector tube, inverter drive fans and water pump, embedded Linux controller, etc. Basically my latest research project.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/geoth...r-air-conditioner-heat-pump-water-heater.html
I actually did the first startup yesterday. The control side of things is far from finished so I had to "drive it manually" so to speak, but it did work pretty well. And there's that odd feeling of satisfaction to shower with water heated by the heat that had been pulled out of your room...
 
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