How do radiators work?

[madman1876]

Noob here just wanna find out how exactly it is that radiators work. I have a water extreme 2.0 and was doing some cleaning in my rig yesterday and decided to change the config from push to pull to see if it could help with the dust. I started screwing through the wrong screws and by the time i noticed and took it out i realized i had threaded through a section of the fins. I panicked cause all else i have is the Intel box cooler and no more thermal compound on hand lol. Surprisingly when i looked at the other side i noticed that i wasn't a first time offender as the holes for the push configuration were threaded into the rad as well. So you get the idea of how my radiator looks like it went to war without a vest. surprisingly i have no leaks at all and my temps are normal still and I've had this for over a year and its had those threads through the rad for over a year now. I idle at about 35-40c and at load get up to about 80 when its really stressed.

 

 

 

[micedits]

From what I understand much they're much like a cars radiator in that water is passed through fins of which airs is being passed over, the fins being made of a highly heat conducting metal, I assume, transfers the heat energy to the air moving passed and in turn cooling the water. For this reason the larger the surface area the more heat can be dispersed hence the huge radiators you can buy. However all this being said I have never water cooled a pc. 

[madman1876]

From what I understand much they're much like a cars radiator in that water is passed through fins of which airs is being passed over, the fins being made of a highly heat conducting metal, I assume, transfers the heat energy to the air moving passed and in turn cooling the water. For this reason the larger the surface area the more heat can be dispersed hence the huge radiators you can buy. However all this being said I have never water cooled a pc. 

 

Yea but i kinda said i screwed through the fins so why isn't it causing a problem?

[Shaqo_Wyn]

Yea but i kinda said i screwed through the fins so why isn't it causing a problem?

It's because there is no water flowing through the fins. Check out this pic. http://ferrell-pc.com/radiator.gif. Water flows through the pipes in the radiator and the heat is then transferred to the fins which supply the radiator with a much larger surface area that the fans extract heat from.

[othertomperson]

Water doesn't go through the fins themselves.

[lapris54]

Yea but i kinda said i screwed through the fins so why isn't it causing a problem?

Well it is making a difference, just a very small one that is negligible 

[micedits]

Well there people have fixed that issue, I just have a lack of experience. Water does not pass through the fins. 

[madman1876]

Because you may not have gone through them, maybe you bent them, meaning the air would still pass over as usual.

i know what a hole tearing through fins looks like I have experience  

[madman1876]

It's because there is no water flowing through the fins. Check out this pic. http://ferrell-pc.com/radiator.gif. Water flows through the pipes in the radiator and the heat is then transferred to the fins which supply the radiator with a much larger surface area that the fans extract heat from.

yea thanks man this looks more like it because i know i definitely tore some fins

[Enderman]

Water doesn't go through the fins themselves.

 

 

It's because there is no water flowing through the fins. Check out this pic. http://ferrell-pc.com/radiator.gif. Water flows through the pipes in the radiator and the heat is then transferred to the fins which supply the radiator with a much larger surface area that the fans extract heat from.

 

This is not a very accurate description of how computer radiators work. Water does go through the fins, but ONLY the larger/thicker ones that travel horizontally(they are not pipes, they are fins with water travelling through them). In between these fins/pipes there is a this sheet of metal that does a zig-zag to increase fin density. This is probably what you bent with your screws. You will not get any leaks unless you bend or puncture the thicker fins, which usually are strategically placed so that they are not under the screw holes.

[Freaky_spider]

It's because there is no water flowing through the fins. Check out this pic. http://ferrell-pc.com/radiator.gif. Water flows through the pipes in the radiator and the heat is then transferred to the fins which supply the radiator with a much larger surface area that the fans extract heat from.

thats a car radiator though, a pc radiator only has one channel that goes around the fin array, not treu them like that picture