Quote from: kevinm on June 24, 2013, 03:33:37 PM

Quote from: Ente on June 24, 2013, 08:22:24 AM

Quote from: Vigil on June 23, 2013, 03:24:16 PM

I am an engineer with a background in aerodynamics/fluids and am capable of performing Heat/CFD simulations. Is there any way I can contribute to the heat sink/dissipation design. I can't promise anything but I can try if I had more understanding of what the goals/design are.

Awesome! :-)
Quick question about watercooling:
How about building a simple aluminum "box" from 5mm aluminum, no fins or similar, and screwing the K16s on that? We could use both sides of the cooler and it would be pretty easy to build.
I guess even with a low waterstream it should cool the board enough?
Cooling the water with a big radiator and a fan, outside, 35°C outside-temp worstcase.
With a few dozen watt per 100cm² this should be a piece of cake for the actual cooler?

Your gut-feeling is enough for me now :-)
(Else we might migrate to the K16 DIY thread)

Ente

I like this idea, its very doable and would be very power efficient. I dont think you would want a basic Aluminium box shape though. Best approach may be to use a heat sink 200 x 200 x 20 minimum with a gap between fins centreline of about 10mm.
Trim each alternate fin by 15mm from its edge and do the same on the opposite side but on staggered fins from those first cut. Weld the end plates and then place a flat rubber mat (2mm thick) 195 x 195 on top of the fins and the closing plate on the top, then seal weld all around. Use a 10mm aluminium nipple for the inlet and outlet which will be on opposite diagonals. The water path would then "snake" backwards and forwards as it travelled laterally from inlet to outlet. The fins are important as they will transfer the heat evenly into the moving water like a conventional tube heat exchanger.

The outlet would be fitted with a rubber hose which transports the water well away from the rig before it is squirted onto the top of a vertical (fine) corrugated plastic sheeting, as the water runs down, it is cooled rapidly by a few 20 W desk fans blowing cool air onto the corrugated surface. The cool water is collected in a simple plastic reservoir and pumped back up a rubber tube to the inlet via a submersible adjustable aquarium pump. PCB would have to be attached to sinks by double sided adhesive thermal pads and only use Aluminium nipples as any other different metal will cause galvanic corrosion and cause leaks. A low power small aquarium pump of say 20 LPM would do nicely. Flow can be adjusted until the heatsink outlet temperature is low enough.

It is something I might just try Wink

cheers,
kev

I thought about doing the same thing to the heatsink, making the water snake around before exiting.. I'm not sure about the cooling setup with the fans though, while effective, it causes evaporation, you'd have to refill the water tank daily, not to mention raising the humidity in your house to mold-causing levels.
I would rather park a radiator under my house and one outside and run the water through those.