Now Glezer's team has hit on a more efficient way to dislodge bubbles before they can coalesce into a film, using sound waves instead.This technology could be used in computers but also to cool verhicles, aircraft or space vehicles.
In experiments, the researchers placed an acoustic driver – essentially a speaker – sitting opposite from the heated surface, with cooling fluid in-between.
They found that projecting just a small amount of sound energy, at frequencies near 1 kilohertz, across the fluid was enough to do dislodge the gathering bubbles. This increased the amount of heat that could be dissipated by as much as 147%.
The best results were achieved when the distance between the acoustic driver and the heated surface was just a few millimetres, which is good news for applications in which space is a premium. "The underwater jets solution is effective, but this way is more compact, requires less power, and is, well, more elegant," Glezer says.
Sound waves to keep your CPU cooler?
Posted on Tuesday, January 29 2008 @ 0:20 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology say sound waves can help to increase the heat dissipation of liquid cooling systems by as much as 147%: