[TR] water wetter

[Don Hiscock]

Physical chemistry was never my strongest suit, but ISTR that metals such
as iron, steel, aluminum have extraordinarily high surface energies --
much, much higher than the surface tension of water.  Since fluids wet a
surface when their surface tension is lower than the surface energy of what
they're in contact with, it would seem to me to be very hard to have water
NOT wet the surface of a metal.  It's hard to imagine poor enough wetting
to impede heat transfer into the fluid.

The pseudo-science of "improving" wetting of engine coolants to improve
heat transfer has just never made sense to me from first principles.  it's
always been in the category of magnets to align gasoline molecules and the
like.  This thread is interesting, and it'll be good to see what the
collective wisdom of the list is able to come up with.

Don
1962 TR3B TSF202
(painted now -- over thirty years of ownership finally coming together:
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-RMmmJXX/0/L/i-RMmmJXX-L.jpg )

On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 6:35 AM, Fernando Sanchez Zinny <fsz at redsa.com.ar>wrote:

> Has anyone had any experience using a water wetter product (such as Red
> Line) Since the forecast for our summer is quite on the hot side I would
> like to know if it is advisable to pour it in your radiator or not.
> Thanks a lot, Fernando