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Watercooling is a method of heat removal from components. Contrary to air cooling, it uses water as the heat transmitter and is commonly used for cooling internal combustion engines in automobiles. Other uses include cooling the lubricant oil of pumps; for cooling purposes in heat exchangers; and cooling products from tanks or columns. The advantages of using water cooling over air cooling include water's higher specific heat capacity, density and thermal conductivity, meaning water can transmit heat over greater distances with much less volumetric flow and reduced temperature difference. This leads to the primary advantage watercooling enjoys over conventional heatsinks: the tremendously increased ability to transport heat away from source to a secondary cooling surface allows for large, more optimally designed radiators rather than small, inefficient fins mounted on or near a heat source such as a CPU core. A typical watercooling setup consists of an object to be cooled, a pump which circulates the water and a radiator such as a large heatsink (possibly with a fan). These components are linked by tubes. An optional watercooling component is a reservoir, which helps to prevent the formation of air bubbles in the system. However, if the watercooling system is properly configured and sealed, there is no need for a reservoir, though it does make the system much easier and less time-consuming to fill. Another option is simply using a T-Line, which usually costs about $1 USD. There is no need for either of these components, though one is recommended to make the operation quicker to fill and bleed.
Open method An open watercooling system makes use of evaporative cooling, lowering the temperature of the remaining (unevaporated) water. A component such as a bong cooler replaces the radiator of a closed watercooling system. The obvious downside of this method is the need to continually replace the water lost due to evaporation. Computer usage
Industrial usage Most industrial cooling towers use river water or well water as their source of fresh cooling water. The large mechanical induced-draft or forced-draft cooling towers in industrial plants such as power plants, petroleum oil refineries, petrochemical plants and natural gas processing plants continuously circulate cooling water through heat exchangers and other equipment where the water absorbs heat. That heat is then rejected to the atmosphere by the partial evaporation of the water in cooling towers where upflowing air is contacted with the circulating downflow of water. The loss of evaporated water into the air exhausted to the atmosphere is replaced by "make-up" fresh river water or fresh cooling water. Since the evaporation of pure water is replaced by make-up water containing carbonates and other dissolved salts, a portion of the circulating water is also continuously discarded as "blowdown" water to prevent the excessive build-up of salts in the circulating water.• Some industrial plants located in coastal areas use "once-through" seawater for their cooling needs and the warm seawater is returned and discharged offshore. Thermal pollution is an issue which needs to be addressed when waste cooling water is discharged into seas or rivers. On the other hand, the cooling water in such heat exchange cycles must be treated to prevent fouling in heat exchangers like condensers and other equipment. High grade industrial water (produced by reverse osmosis) and potable water is sometimes used in industrial plants requiring high-purity cooling water. Some nuclear reactors use heavy water as cooling. Most of the time, heavy water is employed in nuclear reactors because it is a moderator for the nuclear chain reaction. For the main cooling system, normal water is preferably employed through the use of a heat exchanger as heavy water is much more expensive. Reactors that use other materials for moderation (graphite) may also use normal water for cooling. See also | ||||||||||
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