Radiator profile: applications and installation methods

What can be used aluminum radiator profile? What kinds of it can be found on sale? How to organize the heat sink from the heating device or chip with it? Let's try to answer these questions.

What it is

Aluminum profile - the radiator is a plate or a channel with additional fins to increase the area of ​​the heat sink. It is aluminum that is massively used as a material for radiators due to the combination of high thermal conductivity (four times more than steel or cast iron) and the relatively low cost of metal due to the simplicity and processability of its production from alumina.

How much does the thermal conductivity of a metal affect the efficiency of a heat sink? Let us give an example from the field of heating: at identical sizes, the heat output of a copper-aluminum convector is approximately twice as large as that of a round-shaped cast-iron radiator. The difference is due to more uniform heating of the fins at the first heater.

Areas of use

Where is the profile - radiator used massively? Offhand can be called two areas.

LED strip

They are positioned as an economical and cold light source. For the most part, this opinion is true: LEDs are much more economical than incandescent, halogen and even compact fluorescent lamps. However, one should not think that the consumed electric power is completely transformed into light: the efficiency of the LED is far from 100%.

Please note: we have given the value of efficiency for a relatively new line of 5630 LEDs. In older and more common 5050 and 3528, the ratio of energy expended and emitted energy is much worse.

In addition to the LEDs themselves, there are current-limiting resistors on the tape, which additionally slightly degrade the effective efficiency. Where the rest of the spent electric power disappears is not difficult to guess: it is completely converted into heat.

The power of modern tapes reaches 18-24 watts per meter. It is a bit in absolute terms; However, given the small heat exchange area, the release of 9-12 watts in the form of heat causes the tape to warm up to fairly severe temperatures.

Meanwhile, the heating of the LED strip has a limiting factor. The operating temperature of the LEDs is strictly limited by the manufacturer.

Declared for modern LEDs 30 - 50 thousand hours of resource are relevant only at the following temperatures:

• For the line of 3528 LEDs - up to 65 C;
• For 5050 - up to 65 C;
• For 5630 - up to 80 C;
• For 5730-05 - up to 80 C;
• For 5730-1 - up to 80 C.

Exceeding the temperature limit leads to accelerated degradation of semiconductor elements; the higher the temperature, the lower the actual service life.

The aluminum radiator performs the function of a passive heat sink for the tape: it dramatically increases the heat transfer area, reducing the heating of the LEDs.

Reference: manufacturers strongly recommend installation on an aluminum radiator of all tapes with a capacity of 14 watts / meter.

What are the radiators for LED strips?

On sale you can find the following types of them:

1. Angular. As a rule, fins are insignificant; profile section is L-shaped. The radiator is often equipped with a diffuser, which is designed to prevent eye fatigue with point sources of bright light;
2. Built in. Section - U-shaped; mounted in the grooves of furniture, plasterboard ceilings, a variety of niches. And here often diffusers are included in the factory package;

Pay attention: the diffuser reduces luminous flux by 25-40%. When calculating the illumination of the room do not forget to amend.

1. Overhead the profile is designed for ceiling and wall mounting.

The price of a radiator for LED strips of moderate (up to 20 watts) power varies from 70 to 200 rubles per linear meter.

Microcircuits

As the manufacturing process of multilayer chips decreases, the supply voltage for them is continuously reduced, but the current consumed by them is growing steadily. Unfortunately, the heat dissipation of large circuits is growing. This trend is most clearly seen in the example of central processing units and GPU (video card chips).

We give a few numbers:

• A typical Pentium 3 processor thermal package with a frequency of 600 MHz was 43 watts;
• For the modern top - processor Core i7-4790K - typical heat dissipation is already 88 watts, peak - 130;

• The NVidia GeForce 256 video card announced fifteen years ago had a heat dissipation of 24 watts;
• The modern top - Ge Force GTX 980 Ti - emits 250 watts in the form of heat.

Of course, the problem of heat dissipation rises here as well.

Aluminum profile for radiators of various shapes, with different area and shape of fins is used for cooling:

• CPUs;
• Graphics processors;
• North and South bridge microcircuits (on modern motherboards they transformed into a single chipset chipset);
• Key transistors power stabilizers;

• A variety of control chips routers, switches, etc.

Installation

Despite the variety of radiator shapes, there are quite a few ways to install them yourself.

Radiators for LED strips are most often mounted on a conventional all-purpose adhesive or silicone sealant, as well as on self-tapping screws. The tape itself uses an adhesive layer applied by the manufacturer for fastening.

Radiators for central and graphic processors use spring-loaded clamps and screw mechanisms for reliable fixation. In most cases, a fan is installed on the radiator.

Finally, hot glue is often used to install the radiator profile on the transistors of power converters in the absence of holes in the board for spring mounting. Instructions for its use is quite standard: the glue is applied to the surface of transistors, after which the radiator presses against them with moderate effort for 2-3 hours.

Conclusion

We hope that our brief introductory review will seem informative to the reader. As always, he can get more information from the video in this article. Successes!