You all know how much I like talking about heat transfer and server
cooling, so I decided to do some research on this product:
Here's their website:
https://forcedphysics.com
and here's their YouTube channel with 5 videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClwWeahYGuNl0THWVz1Hyow/videos
This is really nothing more than an air-cooled heatsink. I'm afraid I'm
going to have to call BS on this technology for the following reasons:
1. It still uses air as the primary cooling medium. I just don't think
air has adequate thermal conductivity or thermal capacity to serve
modern processor, no matter what you do to it.
2. In the videos, they present highly idealized tests with no control to
use for comparison. How do I know I wouldn't get the same results doing
the same experiment but using a similar duct fashioned out of sheet metal.
3. Using this technology means a complete redesign of your server
hardware and possibly your racks.
4. None of the information in the videos or on their website really
explains how this technology works, and what really differentiates it
from any other air-cooled heat sink. Most people with a good invention
are usually excited to tell you how it works. Since they brag about 30
international patents for this, there's no need to try to protect a
trade secret.
5. This statement:
The fins work like teeth in a comb, neatly orienting air molecules to
point in the same direction and arranging them into columns.
Based on my education, this statement seems to be completely devoid of
science.
This statement seems to defy the laws of physics. Last time I checked,
unless an atom or molecule is at absolute zero, it has movement, whether
it's spinning or vibrating, or both, so how can they get air molecules
to line up all in neat little rows, where the molecules are all pointing
the same way?
This also implies very laminar flow. As fluid velocity increases that
the diameter of the channel decreases, the Reynolds Number increases. As
the Reynold's number goes up, turbulence increases, so mathematically, I
would expect this flow to be tubulent, and not laminar. From my classes
on heat transfer, turbulent flow around the heat transfer surface
increases heat transfer, so laminar flow in this case wouldn't be a good
thing.
Until they can provide better comparisons with real servers in real data
center environments, I'm going to classify this as "snake oil"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_oil
Prentice
On 1/24/19 3:54 PM, chuck_pet...@selinc.com wrote:
Well, this is interesting.
"According to Forced Physics’ <https://forcedphysics.com/
[forcedphysics.com]
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__forcedphysics.com_&d=DwMFAw&c=-_uRSsrpJskZgEkGwdW-sXvhn_FXVaEGsm0EI46qilk&r=fawF3TRTwCqlaBkoLcxYCr4F4NRwCc64hmEgi9rHPpE&m=zr6lAlVphGxOQTXSElww9hGpqb9IZPik0_MN2v8Fqjs&s=lb4Hi9X8NKIYWe_e1RU3Cw4gr9Uz_B7n5pnCNY0ss3U&e=>>
chief technology officer, David Binger, the company’s conductor can
help a typical data center eliminate its need for water or
refrigerants and shrink its 22-MW load by 7.72 MW, which translates to
an annual reduction of 67.6 million kWh. That data center could also
save a total of US $45 million a year on infrastructure, operating,
and energy costs with the new system, according to Binger. “We are
solving the problem that electrons create,” he said."
A Cooler Cloud: A Clever Conduit Cuts Data Centers’ Cooling Needs by
90 Percent
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/environment/a-cooler-cloud-a-clever-conduit-cuts-data-centers-cooling-needs-by-90-percent
[spectrum.ieee.org]
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__spectrum.ieee.org_energy_environment_a-2Dcooler-2Dcloud-2Da-2Dclever-2Dconduit-2Dcuts-2Ddata-2Dcenters-2Dcooling-2Dneeds-2Dby-2D90-2Dpercent&d=DwMFAw&c=-_uRSsrpJskZgEkGwdW-sXvhn_FXVaEGsm0EI46qilk&r=fawF3TRTwCqlaBkoLcxYCr4F4NRwCc64hmEgi9rHPpE&m=zr6lAlVphGxOQTXSElww9hGpqb9IZPik0_MN2v8Fqjs&s=VuDTSuinKPMpF6NCztFZkSGOVo3LD7MLjroIj_sn0ao&e=>
Chuck Petras, PE**
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc
Pullman, WA 99163 USA
http://www.selinc.com <http://www.selinc.com/>
SEL Synchrophasors - A New View of the Power System
<http://synchrophasor.selinc.com <http://synchrophasor.selinc.com/>>
Making Electric Power Safer, More Reliable, and More Economical (R)
** Registered in Oregon.
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