Radiators in Parallel

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Originally Posted by jinsean

So, I sucked at physics and I think I finally understand the difference b/t rads in series Vs. parallel. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rad in parallel:
Pump -> splitter -> Rad 1 + Rad 2 -> joiner to rest of loop

Rad in series:
Pump -> Rad 1 -> Rad 2 -> rest of loop

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only problem is your top model wont work. The line going to the second radiator is too long. So you would have a flow inballance.

You see now why i said its very hard to pull off precisely.


AT one point in time i thought it might be interesting to use a device called a squid. Its basically a wave maker made of plastic pipes. It lets current flow though one side and then change over to the other. The flow is held consistant, and changes direction.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...id.asp?CartId=

But then i thought were getting too overboard here. And i dont think this method would work very well, but it would allow the coolant to sit in the radiator for about 1-2 sec while it swaped though each one you connected it too. I thought this might be interesting, but never had to guts to pull it off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NaeKuh

only problem is your top model wont work. The line going to the second radiator is too long. So you would have a flow inballance.

You see now why i said its very hard to pull off precisely.


AT one point in time i thought it might be interesting to use a device called a squid. Its basically a wave maker made of plastic pipes. It lets current flow though one side and then change over to the other. The flow is held consistant, and changes direction.

http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...id.asp?CartId=

But then i thought were getting too overboard here. And i dont think this method would work very well, but it would allow the coolant to sit in the radiator for about 1-2 sec while it swaped though each one you connected it too. I thought this might be interesting, but never had to guts to pull it off.

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how does flow imbalance effect the loop?

I wasn't intentionally making one line longer than the other hehe, but it's a good point you brought up I guess if it effects the loop...

NaeKuh I don't think the extra restriction from a little bit of tubing will matter that much.
Oh and sanhacker, 2 pumps in series should be more failsafe than 2 pumps in 2 different loops if you think about it. That's another reason to use parallel rads in one single loop if you don't have way too many things in the loop, and still want good performance or if you have certain limitations.

Another thing I wanted to bring up is that if you think about it, if one rad is capable of dissipating 2 times more heat as another rad you plan to use, then you want to control flow somehow so that the bigger/better rad DOES dissipate its share. So if you want to use different size radiators together it might be a good idea to throw in NB/SB/ram/hdd whatever blocks into the "branch" of the smaller rad. Besides flow through the "branches" is 1/2 the flow of the rest of the loop so restriction shouldn't be too bad, you just suffer performance hits on any block in there (which is why I said use NB/SB/etc. blocks ;))