The fanless heatsink: Silent, dust-immune

apoppin · Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2012 10:44 am

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/13 ... prime-time
very promising efficient and effective new tech just got licensed

Quote:

two companies — one computer heatsink maker, and one LED light maker — have licensed the technology.

In the Sandia Cooler, the heatsink itself is the fan. It is a cast metal impeller that floats on a hydrodynamic air bearing just a thousandth of an inch (0.03 millimeters) above a metal heat pipe spreader, powered by a brushless motor in the middle. The end result is a cooler that is very quiet and 30 times more efficient than a fan-and-heatsink solutions. The prototype (shown above and in the video below) is 10 times smaller than a commercial state-of-the-art cooler, but has the same cooling performance.

The Sandia Cooler’s silent operation is due to the fact that a fanless design has a lot more flexibility, whereas the fan in a standard air cooler just needs to drive as much air as possible. The Sandia Cooler’s impeller blades can have a geometry that perfectly splits the air at the impeller entrance (in the middle) and rejoins the air flow at the exit (the edges).

Quote:

dust immunity derives from two facets of the Sandia Cooler’s design: a) Because they’re constantly moving at 2000+ RPM, it’s almost impossible for dust to settle on the heatsink’s blades, and b) Centrifugal force drives out any dust from the tiny air gap between the heatsink and heat spreader. This centrifugal force is what gives the Sandia Cooler such massive efficiency, too. In standard heatsinks, the heat exchange surface is covered in “dead air” boundary layer that acts as an insulator; in the Sandia Cooler, the centrifugal force reduces the thickness of this boundary layer by 10 times. . . .
. . . the Sandia Cooler’s high efficiency (and relatively small size) makes it an ideal replacement for just about every fan-and-heatsink installation in the world. Koplow has estimated that if every conventional heatsink in the US was replaced with a Sandia Cooler, the country would use 7% less electricity. For the most part, these savings would come from air conditioning and refrigeration systems — but for now, it seems like computers and LED lights will be the first devices to receive Sandia Cooling treatment.

In computers, a Sandia Cooler would mean that we could finally cross the 4GHz/150W TDP thermal wall — or build computers that are thinner and quieter.

Keysplayr · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 7:34 am

I wonder how they can say it is dust-immune. This will accumulate dust just as any other spinning fan. Maybe even more so.
Nothing is dust immune unless the dust is severely reduces with micro filters.
Also, such a heavy piece of metal spinning must be perfectly balanced else very early bearing failure.
IMHO this design will be short lived.

grstanford · **Joined:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:19 am **Posts:** 4969

Plus there is an air gap between the heat pipe and the spinning heatsink. Little wonder this turkey is being peddled in the PC cooling market. I'm sure I've seen it before too, years ago.

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 3977

30 times more effective? Hopefully there is something to this technology.

Really, though, if a heatsink were big enough it could go fanless. My Nzxt Havik 140 is so big that even with the fans at 1300rpm it works as well as low-end water cooling.

I've often wondered why they don't attach the heatsinks to the computer case and then use the case itself as a massive heatsink.

apoppin · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:22 am

Keysplayr wrote:

I wonder how they can say it is dust-immune. This will accumulate dust just as any other spinning fan. Maybe even more so.
Nothing is dust immune unless the dust is severely reduces with micro filters.
Also, such a heavy piece of metal spinning must be perfectly balanced else very early bearing failure.
IMHO this design will be short lived.

Quote:

dust immunity derives from two facets of the Sandia Cooler’s design: a) Because they’re constantly moving at 2000+ RPM, it’s almost impossible for dust to settle on the heatsink’s blades, and b) Centrifugal force drives out any dust from the tiny air gap between the heatsink and heat spreader.

it will be interesting to see this design in actual production

Ocre · **Joined:** Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:22 am **Posts:** 2120

Keysplayr wrote:

I wonder how they can say it is dust-immune. This will accumulate dust just as any other spinning fan. Maybe even more so.
Nothing is dust immune unless the dust is severely reduces with micro filters.
Also, such a heavy piece of metal spinning must be perfectly balanced else very early bearing failure.
IMHO this design will be short lived.

in a typical situation the fan blows air and dust into the cooler. Any congestive point easily starts building up dust which starts blocking more air flow causing more congestion and the cycle continues until the air flow is completely obstructed by dust and particles. But you never see much dust on the fan side that blows the air. You see the dust where the air gets slowed down or stops.

This new design is really radically different. It works completely backwards. the fins of the cooler are more like the fan blades. They generate the air flow instead of obstructing it. The force from the spinning motion also will force any particle flying. Think of those old carnival rides like the gravitron and ppl as the dust particles. It generates an extremely powerful force pushing everything against the wall. Think of this graviton without any walls now. Ppl would fly off of the thing and eventually find obstruction elsewhere where they would land. This new design would have the same effect. Dust and particles would not collect on the cooler itself but it would build up where ever that wind hits.

These design is extremely promising. Its brilliant and totally amassing. I have no doubt that we will see some version of this idea play an important part in our future. This company may not be the ones to revolutionize the world but i do think this concept is huge.

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 3977

Some coolers are more prone to dust than others. The ones with the really fine fins and high speed fan are the worst. Thankfully we don't really have those on the market any more these days.

apoppin · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:37 pm

High speed fans are noisy

And whatever happened to heaters that work by spinning impellers at extremely high rpm to super-heat air? It seems that it would be pretty energy efficient.

There are a lot of great ideas that are blocked by the "system". Hopefully this one will work well

SickBeast · **Joined:** Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:57 pm **Posts:** 3977

Just so that I understand this concept, are they talking about actually rotating the entire heatsink rather than putting a fan on the thing?

apoppin · Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:57 pm

Basically

Look at the diagram and check the youtube video also the Sandia web site

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/13 ... prime-time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... WQZNXEKkaU

https://ip.sandia.gov/technology.do/techID=66

The fanless heatsink: Silent, dust-immune

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