Prototype all aluminum radiator
- Thread starter nldrvr
- Start date
timmy!!!!!!!
Explorer
Ooooh I think you should send one to let me test in the New Orleans tropical heat.
astateofmike
Observer
ahhhhhh first Facebook, now here....aahhhhhhhhh the radiator is haunting me....... how much...when in production....don't look directly at it.....ahhhh
I can test it for you here in the Middle East summer (60 degrees Celcius)
:26_16_2:
Very cool, looks like a very solid reproduction.
The best part is going to be the durability as the aluminum is much tougher then the copper.
It will not exchange heat any better though as aluminums thermal conductivity rate is much less then copper.. Copper has a thermal conductivity of 231 Btu/hr/ft. Aluminum has a thermal conductivity of 136 Btu/hr/ft. Copper is a significantly better heat exchange medium and that is why it is and has been used to build radiators for so long.
Adding into that is the fact that few electric fans can produce the same air flow as a mechanical fans.
In the end this will most likely drop the overall cooling not increase it.
The best part is going to be the durability as the aluminum is much tougher then the copper.
It will not exchange heat any better though as aluminums thermal conductivity rate is much less then copper.. Copper has a thermal conductivity of 231 Btu/hr/ft. Aluminum has a thermal conductivity of 136 Btu/hr/ft. Copper is a significantly better heat exchange medium and that is why it is and has been used to build radiators for so long.
Adding into that is the fact that few electric fans can produce the same air flow as a mechanical fans.
In the end this will most likely drop the overall cooling not increase it.
James86004
Expedition Leader
The quality of the design and construction has more to do with the cooling efficiency that the material. How well the fins are bonded to the tubes, the shape and size and pattern of the tubes and fins, etc. In the quest for lighter weight, a lot more efficient designs have become common since the D1/RRC ones were built, so I would not be surprised if an aluminum one will outperform an OEM Copper/Brass Land Rover radiator.
stolenheron
Explorer
I want one for a D2. NOW
I would be very surprised if that one out cools a stock unit in new condition.
just doing the math says that it would need about 40% more area to have the same thermal conductivity. looking cool does nothing to make the engine run cooler:sombrero:
I know lots of people that had to pitch a aftermarket aluminum radiator and go back to a stock style copper one to keep high horsepower street rod or muscle car cool.
As I said before I am sure it will be very durable and thats a good thing off road for sure, but to claim its going to cool better flys in the face of just about anything you will hear or read if you go research this subject in the radiator world. Thermal conductivity is at the heart of what makes a radiators function and the materials used to conduct that heat away is the single biggest factor involved.
And just to be clear this is in no way meant to discredit the builder of this unit, it looks like a very well done piece and I am sure it will work great in a truck that is going to get driven fast and beat hard hard off road.
Cool radiator. Who made it? The construction looks familiar.
And just to clarify the critical form of heat transfer in a radiator is not conduction but convection (both inside the tubes and the airflow outside). If a aluminum radiator was outperformed by a copper radiator it is probably due to the fin and tube design and not the material alone.
It is a tricky thing designing a radiator and aluminum offers a lot of flexibility to optimize performance for the application. Because of all of these design parameters it is also easy to design a poor aluminum radiator for the application. This can lead to some confusion, like the lower thermal conductivity of aluminum will mean the radiator has poor performance.
Most custom radiator companies these days use cores made from only a few companies and then weld on the custom tanks to fit the application. Nothing wrong with this as long as the right core is selected.
And just to clarify the critical form of heat transfer in a radiator is not conduction but convection (both inside the tubes and the airflow outside). If a aluminum radiator was outperformed by a copper radiator it is probably due to the fin and tube design and not the material alone.
It is a tricky thing designing a radiator and aluminum offers a lot of flexibility to optimize performance for the application. Because of all of these design parameters it is also easy to design a poor aluminum radiator for the application. This can lead to some confusion, like the lower thermal conductivity of aluminum will mean the radiator has poor performance.
Most custom radiator companies these days use cores made from only a few companies and then weld on the custom tanks to fit the application. Nothing wrong with this as long as the right core is selected.
Well I would have to disagree a bit in the fact that convection is the process of the heat transfer from the liquid to the solid of the radiator but thermal conductivity is the property that heat then acts in as it is then moved thrould the solid of the radiator tubes and fins.Convection as a property can not occur in a solid.
I am not in disagreement about the fact that some tube and fin designs perform better then others. What I am saying is that the material that is doing the conductive step in the cooling process is a key factor in the calculation of any radiators ability to act in a cooling process. Go read about Fourier's law and you will see where I am comming from on this. It is not about cars and trucks.
