The next big thing since heat pipes?

Peter G. 22 Oct, 2007 at 11:25am ET Article published in Tech

First we had aluminum coolers, then a copper/aluminum hybrid, then all copper, then we got heat pipes. Maybe the Akasa Revo is the next step, with something called SilentFlux? It looks like heat pipe 2.0.

Comments

22 Oct 2007 ~ 11:55am GHoosdum Whatever it is, it's probably better than the bloody flux.
22 Oct 2007 ~ 12:15pm BuddyJ Remember that heat pipes weren't that awesome early on. It took a while for them to catch on and for the technology to be refined. This is just an engineering sample to demonstrate something new. It's a glance at something that possibly, given time, could influence HSF design in the next few years.
22 Oct 2007 ~ 12:31pm edcentric This is a heat pipe, the fluid vaporizes at the hot end and condenses at the cold end and it internally flows.
All that they have done here is pushed up the scale. Which explains why it is orientation specific.
I expect that other heat pipe units are orientation sensitive also, I wonder about some of the tower units that we use now....
22 Oct 2007 ~ 1:14pm BuddyJ This one uses R-134a (the stuff in car AC units). It boils at -16F, but under pressure, it stays fluid. My uneducated guess is that the HSF holds it sealed under pressure. Essentially, they've taken the heat pipe design and improved it with a better refrigerant.

Traditional heat pipes have have wicks inside the pipes to negate the need to be orientation specific according to Wikipedia. Dunno what's stopping this design from following that route.
22 Oct 2007 ~ 1:19pm CB

Buddy Jesus wrote:

This one uses R-134a (the stuff in car AC units). It boils at -16F, but under pressure, it stays fluid. My uneducated guess is that the HSF holds it sealed under pressure. Essentially, they've taken the heat pipe design and improved it with a better refrigerant.

Traditional heat pipes have have wicks inside the pipes to negate the need to be orientation specific according to Wikipedia. Dunno what's stopping this design from following that route.

A wick that doesn't degrade in r-134a? That stuffs a bit corrosive, isn't it?
22 Oct 2007 ~ 1:29pm BuddyJ Dunno. Wonder if woven fiberglass would work?
22 Oct 2007 ~ 1:54pm edcentric Asbestos would handle it.
Just don't tell anyone.

Even the small wick units usually show some orientation effect. The bigger ones like this often use a corrugated metal foil in place of the wick.
25 Oct 2007 ~ 3:00pm BuddyJ Another review of it, but this time, the performance is ass. Dunno what the deal is.
25 Oct 2007 ~ 3:21pm GHoosdum Must have been orientated improperly when it performed like ass.
25 Oct 2007 ~ 3:26pm Thelemech

GHoosdum wrote:

Must have been orientated improperly when it performed like ass.
25 Oct 2007 ~ 3:34pm BuddyJ Yeah, that was my guess. I checked their photos and it looks like they had it oriented correctly. Maybe it has to do with the bottom of their unit not being finished nicely like the one DriverHeaven got, although I'd be surprised if that was the case.