> About your radiator flow theory. Say per you argument that the coolent is in
> there half as much time. You argument seems correct if you have in infinite
> amount of coolent flowing through once. But the reality is you only have a
> small amount of coolent. If it does not loose as much temperature in the
> radiator as it will gain on its next trip through the block, it will have
> a higher temperature next time it reaches the radiator. This is a closed
> environment (until the temp gets too high).
While what you say is true, there is another effect that you are neglecting.
Not only does the coolant go through the radiator twice as fast, it goes
through the ENGINE twice as fast, and thus picks up less heat per unit flow.
> What you are trying for is an
> equiliberum where the amount of heat put into the coolent by the engine
> equals the amount given off in the radiator at a sutible temperature for the
> engine's well being. Your coolent has got to stay in the radiator long
> enough to lose the heat imparted while it was in the engine.
Well no it doesn't. The air outside the radiator has no way of telling what
the flow rate of coolant is inside. The temperature of the radiator is all
it can tell. With more coolant flow, the radiator may well get hotter all
the way down to the bottom, and you will get more heat transfer to the air
as a result. Every bit of heat that gets transferred from the metal of the
radiator has to come from the coolant - so there will be more heat transfer
out of the coolant as well.
> meanwhile Scott & I will probably get poo pooed by a PHD thermodynamices type
> on the mail list..
I don't have a PHD in anything, and am really not sure if I would want one.
I have done thermo three times, once each in the chemistry and mechanical
engineering departments at MIT, and once in highschool physics. I now
have a certified case of enthalpy of the brain...
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John R. Lupien
lupienj@wal.hp.com
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