Oil Cooling

[davidbeach]

Recently there was a thread in this, or one of the other electric forums I follow, with a tangent discussion that included equipment cooled in motor oil that one does not normally think of as being oil cooled. This evening my son pointed out this site to me:

http://www.markusleonhardt.de.nyud.net:8090/oelbilder.html.

In this case it is vegetable oil, not motor oil, but still rather unusual.

 

[itsmoked]

That is NUTS!!

What a total maintence nightmare.

What happens when one bad part hits dull red?

I leave my computer on most of the time. I would not want to turn my back on 550kBTUs of oil.

What happens when it gets rancid?


Quesions to be answered...[flush]

 

[ko99]

Some people will do anything for a little peace and quiet!

In the real world "dielectric" oil is sometimes used to cool high power densities in sealed enclosures. See:

http://www-edd.tw.l3com.com/edd/html/news/news_oil_cooling_of_msdc_iots.htm

ko (

http://www.ecooling.biz)

 

[alehman]

What a mess. I wonder what is the reason given for this silliness? Overclocking the CPU?

I would be surprised if many of those components are made of materials that are not damaged by submersion in oil (like wire insulation, to start with). All those connectors will probably not work after they are disconnected the first time, if they last that long. I wonder how well those fans work in oil.

 

[ko99]

Overclocking is a good guess, or noise reduction. People into this do a lot of silly things but once in a while come up with a creative gem.

btw, i expect the fans would not be necessary

ko (

http://www.ecooling.biz)

 

[electricpete]

I didn't see any text but just the pictures. Pretty weird.

Someone took some old computer guts and put them in an aquarium and filled it with oil. Does the computer still work?

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[a430]

what happen during the winter period?it sounds funny.

 

[electricpete]

Lots of good points.

One thing we have all heard is that the technology for making computers faster relies on making things smaller (since travel time and spreading of high-frequency signals become limiting factors). And the higher the frequency the more heat generated in switching devices (every switch generates heat) and perhaps even tiny conductors are subject to skin effect which increases heating at those high frequencies? So any advantage you can get in cooling without making things bigger would be good.

I think there may be code requirements which would prohibit oil-filled equipment in homes/workspaces due to the danger mentioned by itsmoked. Maybe the smaller sealed package around critical component such as cpu would be more tolerable but that would seem to be a barrier to miniaturization.

I don't know but no doubt cooling the system is an integral part of the computer design and who knows what is coming next. (Did anyone think 10 years ago that people would be taking pictures with their phones?)

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

 

[rbulsara]

well, oil insulated breakers/transformers etc at much higher voltage been in use forever, why so much fuss about low voltage equipment in oil? As long as oil has the dielectric strength and non-corrosive properties suitable for the application. If its edible (biodegradable), EPA should not be a problem.

Permissible use of oil insultated equipmnet in certain location is a separate step, but not insurmountible.

I am not saying this is a great idea or a economically viable one, but certainly tenchincally not wrong.

 

[itsmoked]

I am sure this guy did it to make it more quiet as ko99 said. There is a kind of web club of "make it quieter" people out there.

They go to all sorts of lengths to do this. My buddy built one because he wants to run a server out of his apartment 24/7 and doesn't want to hear ANYTHIING. So he has a DC supply run from four golf cart batteries and has water cooling plates on all heat critical parts connected with water lines to a finned cooling tower with a quiet circulating pump.

I think he's nuts..

My newest computer running in ANTEC's quiet chassis, with a special fan, is sitting on my desk just below face level, a foot away. It can not be heard at all. Even in a totally quiet office. So I think there is some strange personal drive to do this using extreme methods.

I still wonder what happens when that cooking oil gets rancid. peeeeuuuu!

If you are familiar with the amazing Half Life 2 game this will ring a bell:

http://members.home.nl/gis/

 

[stevenal]

Biodegradable fluids for electrical equipment are formulated for that use. They are put in equipment where the environment is controlled to ensure degradation only occurs after a release. This oil was evidently formulated for putting on salads or cooking fries has not been tested for dielectric strength, moisture content, corrosiveness, or flammability. The open aquarium ensures it will attract moisture and oxygen and critters, so it will degrade in place. The resulting sludge will thermally insulate the items that need cooling. Sounds technically wrong to me.