Re:The fanless spinning heatsink: more efficient, and immune...
by ZoFreX on Tuesday July 12, 2011 @04:11PM
(#2756316)
> It's a fact of heatsinks that two solid surfaces only touch in three places.
Is it?
Re:The fanless spinning heatsink: more efficient, and immune...
by sp332 on Tuesday July 12, 2011 @04:52PM
(#2756514)
If you have two completely rigid objects, then as soon as they touch on two points, those two points define an axis. Rotate the objects on this axis until they touch at a third point. Now they are fixed relative to each other, and you can't move them to touch at more points. If you slide the objects on each other, as soon as they touch at a "new" point, one of the other three will be slightly further away, and won't touch any more. Unless you use a flexible material, or somehow make a perfectly flat surface, they will only touch at three points.
A conductive fluid bearing might work better than an air gap. DLC vs copper makes little difference since that's not the problem.
I see you just edited it to say that DLC is very slick - that doesn't help as much as you think. It's a fact of heatsinks that two solid surfaces only touch in three places. The rest is filled with a tiny air gap. You typically fill in this gap with a fluid.