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Concept
Water cooling
Summary
Water cooling is a method of heat removal from components and industrial equipment. Evaporative cooling using water is often more efficient than air cooling. Water is inexpensive and non-toxic; however, it can contain impurities and cause corrosion.
Water cooling is commonly used for cooling automobile internal combustion engines and power stations. Water coolers utilising convective heat transfer are used inside high-end personal computers to lower the temperature of CPUs and other components.
Other uses include the cooling of lubricant oil in pumps; for cooling purposes in heat exchangers; for cooling buildings in HVAC and in chillers.
Water is inexpensive, non-toxic, and available over most of the earth's surface. Liquid cooling offers higher thermal conductivity than air cooling. Water has unusually high specific heat capacity among commonly available liquids at room temperature and atmospheric pressure allowing efficient heat transfer over distance with low rates of mass transfer. Cooling water may be recycled through a recirculating system or used in a single pass once-through cooling (OTC) system. Water's high enthalpy of vaporization allows the option of efficient evaporative cooling to remove waste heat in cooling towers or cooling ponds. Recirculating systems may be open if they rely upon evaporative cooling or closed if heat removal is accomplished in heat exchangers with negligible evaporative loss. A heat exchanger or condenser may separate non-contact cooling water from a fluid being cooled, or contact cooling water may directly impinge on items like saw blades where phase difference allows easy separation. Environmental regulations emphasize the reduced concentrations of waste products in non-contact cooling water.
Water accelerates corrosion of metal parts and is a favorable medium for biological growth. Dissolved minerals in natural water supplies are concentrated by evaporation to leave deposits called scale. Cooling water often requires addition of chemicals to minimize corrosion and insulating deposits of scale and biofouling.
Official source
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