[Amps] SS amps watercooling - was PowerGenius XL

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:15:55 -0500
From: "Roger (K8RI) on TT" <K8RI-on-TowerTalk at tm.net>
To: Big Don <bigdon39 at gmail.com>
Cc: "amps at contesting.com" <amps at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [Amps] SS amps watercooling - was PowerGenius XL


Wouldn't Amps, or Ham Amps be a better reflector for this thread?

Were talking distilled water here. If it's conductive enough to present 
a danger, it's long past time for a replacement.

When I was a Tech (before going back to college) it was rare to have 
water spraying around inside those 100, 200, and even 250 KW generators 
and the load coils were exposed.

Water cooling is a simple, mature technology.  Water cooling is rather 
simple. It's the monitoring that can get complicated.  In high voltage 
areas, we used linear (solenoid) coils of clear Tygon tubing to get the 
necessary high resistance.

The simplest was a clear plastic block, drilled and tapped for all the 
water exhausts.  You could see at a glance  how well any water circuit 
was doing.  Simple, cheap, and foolproof "IF THE OPERATOR PAID ATTENTION".

73, Roger (K8RI)

On 2/15/2017 5:24 AM, Big Don wrote:
> Water-cooled amps HEALTH TIP --
> There are enough ways to *electrocute* yourself playing with amps
> without having leaked water spraying everywhere....
> Don  N7EF


####  Wife uses distilled water for her breathing machine at night.   I just checked the
resistance of distilled water... vs tap water.   Distilled water resistance is sky high, I mean
really high.   Distilled water comes in 4 litre jugs, dirt cheap at any of the local grocery stores. 

##  I use it myself for the mustang engine and supercharger.  Ditto with the ford fusion.
At the telco I worked at, we used nothing but distilled water  for the huge  2 v dc cells, typ
24 in a series string.   We brought in pallets loads of 5 gal  distilled water containers.   We also
used distilled  water for the big start batteries for the emergency generators.   These days, 
start batteries are all sealed.

##  distilled water is so dirt cheap, and resistance is so high, and LDMOS  only uses 50 vdc,
whats the issue ?   You could toss a bucket of  distilled water into a 7 kv dc    B+ supply..and
nothing will happen. 

##  BTW, per einacs care and feeding, it sez  air cooling will remove 50 watts  per square CM
of internal anode area.    Vapor phase cooling will remove  135 watts per square CM of 
surface area.  Water cooling will remove 1000 watts per square CM.   Vapor phase cooling is
only more eff, in that it does not require a pump, and uses a lot less water.  Depending on the size
of the rad, and if its  mounted vert or horz, u may not even require a fan for the rad. 

##  water  cooling requires more water circulation, and a big rad, and forced air through the rad,
but it will  remove heatr faster than any  other method... except maybe  freon. 

##  If u look at modern HVAC  cooling sytens on commercial buildings these days, they now mount the
huge rads parallel to the roof,  instead of vertical.   Heat rises, and the rads work more eff if mounted
horz  vs vertical.   They still use a fan below the rad though.   telcos use lotsa AC during winter, due to the
heat of the equipment, so in winter, night time, cool wx, the fan for the rad is not always required. 

##  In a lot of cases, they  will shoot  water through the vert mounted rads, to cool em.   They use
freon to do the actual cooling, and water to cool the freon, then more water to  cool the rads,so 3 loops
in total.  

##  For LDMOS, the pair of water lines could easily be routed to else where, then a speed 
controlled fan on a small rad, and ditto with a  variable flow rate pump.   A  12,000  BTU small rad
from jegs, or any of the other speed shops cost <   $50.00   And thats for a .75 inch thick  core.
The higher capacity rads are just thicker, like 1.5 inches thick.   I use one for my auto tranny.
oem cooler is marginal when a supercharger  is used, so added a high eff  bar + plate  type  rad, in 
series with oem rad, problem solved.    Old style  tube and fin type rads are going out of vogue these days.
Small oil coolers and auto tranny rad coolers would work just fine with distilled water. 

##  U would end up with a dead quiet LMOS  setup.  Use enough combiners, and you could get..on paper,
5 or 10 kw pep out if required.   Combining 2 or even 4 ...  of those 2.4 kw pep output LDMOS amps
has already been done.   So you could use them as building blocks.   This is all into a dummy load
of course, for pure scientific analysis.  

Jim   VE7RF