Talk:Heat pipe

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Contents 1 Erroneous Originator 2 Clarification needed 3 Article lacks comparitive technological context 4 Standard Enthalpy Change of Vaporization of water 5 Gravity 6 Split article?

[edit] Erroneous Originator

The orginal patent for heat pipes was granted in 1942 to Mr. R. S. Gaugler of the General Motors Corporation. Grover and his teeam made extremely important mathematic advances to heat pipe theory, proposed several key applications and coined the term "heat pipe." However, these advances occured over 20 years after the orginal patent.

[edit] Clarification needed

An anon made the following edit to the article, probably because they couldn't make a new page, (this Talk page.)

Internally, a wick structure overcomes gravitational forces (or because of their absence in the case of space applications - huh? what does this mean? Can someone clarify?).

I have reverted the edit, but the statement seems reasonable. --Charles Gaudette 07:51, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

It should mean that if the heat pipe is tilted with the evaporating end higher than the condensing end, the capillary force exerted by the wick on the liquid is able to drag it higher, contrary to the gravity force, but it's wrong. Almost all heat pipes used in space application cannot work against gravity, unless the inclination is limited to very few mm/m. Heat pipes able to work against gravity do exist, but they have other limitations and are not used on satellites. I have changed the sentence, do you mind fixing my word usage? i am not mothertongue and my english is far from perfect. Thanks, Andrea.gf 10:30, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I believe it may be referring to heatpipes used in computer cooling? In certain instances, heatpipes as used in computers may be working against gravity... Nil Einne 17:07, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article lacks comparitive technological context

This is an article about a cooling technology yet it lacks any citiations of actual SI units with which to measure performance - eg: Thermal conductivity. It also lacks any comparison to other cooling technologys, save for one sentance with an ad-hoc comparison of heat pipes to solid copper (- a typical example instance of where some SI units would be helpful for comparison). How do heatpipes compare with watercooling? Roidroid 06:10, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

You need a physicist to swing by. It's tough to write about it scientifically if you don't know how. :) I'd suggest doing some google searches for better information. But, with regards to water cooling vs. heat pipes, I'd say it's similar but a lot different. Both are relocating the heat to another location. However, heat pipes use evaporative cooling (phase change) whereas water cooling is just moving heat from one place to another via water's impressive heat capacity (relative to air). Been a long time since I had physics though so don't ask for more! --Swaaye 17:04, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Both heatpipes and watercooling have their advantages and disadvantages. But I think water cooling is better. Heatpipe's efficiency greatly drops when all the working fluids are evaporated and converted to vapor, while water cooling doesn't have this problem. Also, heat pipes work with earth's gravity, so it matters in the direction that you install it and water cooling don't have this problem. However, water cooling has its own problems. Like potential leaking and algaes growth inside the system. However both of these problems can be minimized with proper installation and selection of coolent. Lightblade 23:47, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, gravity is not that much of a concern. Wicking inside of the tubes allows orientation to be perpendicular to gravity, or even against it. Otherwise PC coolers using heatpipes wouldn't work well at all, which is definitely not the case. The range of temperatures at which the heatpipe is useful is determined by internal pressure and/or choice of the fluid. And, heatpipes have zero maintenance requirements. The article covers each of my points. --Swaaye 02:43, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Standard Enthalpy Change of Vaporization of water

The standard enthalpy change of vaporization of water is 540 calories per gram. It was originally listed in this article as 80 which is incorrect. I changed it to 540 then someone changed it back to 80. The correct value is 540 not 80 please stop changing it. 80 calories per gram per is the standard enthalpy change of fusion of water.

[edit] Gravity

I would be interested to know how gravity affects heatpipes. The 'hottest' part is rarely at the bottom of the system, and I would like to know how gravity affects this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blammermouth (talk • contribs) 03:48, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Split article?

The picture at the top of the article is not a heat pipe as described in the article. It's just solid copper wire that CPU heat sink manufacturers call a "heat pipe". Should we split the article, one with the scientific concept of a heat pipe, and one with the colloquial definition? Or maybe just get rid of the bad picture? Gigs (talk) 21:00, 26 February 2008 (UTC)