[SEL] Thermo-syphon Question

[Bill Dickerson]

Isn't the cooling on a tractor such as the Farmalls - the F20, thermosiphon?
Or technically not?

Bill
Runnells, Iowa 

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of John Culp
Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 12:32 PM
To: The SEL email discussion list
Subject: Re: [SEL] Thermo-syphon Question

> I found this on google. Doesn't say anything about the water having to 
> be above either radiator or tank opening. Could this be wrong?

Of course it could. It's not, though, just incomplete. What they're not
mentioning, taking it as a given, is that there must be a complete circuit
for the flow to occur, just as with a DC electrical circuit.

Let a large enough air bubble into the system to open the liquid circuit,
and thermosiphoning can't occur. Percolation driven by rising steam bubbles
still can. Remember the old fashioned coffee percolators?

The heat input to a thermosiphoning system doesn't have to be at the bottom,
or the cooling at the top, for convection to occur. It just needs to be
asymmetrical so that one side of the system contains warmer liquid than the
other. That liquid's less dense than the cool liquid in the other line, so
it will rise and be displaced by the cooler liquid, that then is heated.

John Culp
Bristol, Tennessee, USA

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