TCS - Thermal Cooling System for brushed motors in RC (...)
TCS - Thermal Cooling System for brushed motors in RC 1-10th scale electric cars
2. How the TCS works
a. Water cooling vs. air cooling
To explain how the TCS works, a little parenthesis into the world of computer hardware is necessary.Actually, while the TCS is very new to the world of RC, it is not more than, or less than, an adaptation of PC watercooling systems, tailored to the specifics of our discipline.
But let us return to the PC. A PC can be water-cooled for two entirely different reasons :
to lower its noise emissions (from the ventilators/fans)
to push its components to their maximum performance (overclocking) while still keeping them stable
Of course it is the second option which interests us. We are not really looking for silence...
The overclockers, individuals on a trip to push their PC to its limit, have proven that a cooling system that employs liquid in a cooling circuit (water cooling) is a lot more effective than air cooling realised through classic "ventirads".
Small explanation
For a normally-used PC, an air cooling system with ventirads is largely sufficient.But when one overclocks (accelerate its working frequency) one element such as the processor, graphics card or the memory blocks, the heat this element gives off increases considerably and as a consequence it can overheat. It will then work slower or stop working at all or even be damaged.
This is where the water cooling scene comes in. Their miraculous solutions keep these elements cool and at or below normal working temperatures even while increasing the performance of the system to a point mugh higher above manufacturer’s specs.
The designers of the TCS thus set out with the same goal in mind and to reproduce this system for our cars :
In short :
Air cooling : Cooling by radiator with or without ventilator, using the air flow.
Water cooling : More complex but much more effective cooling system based on a hydraulic circuit.
For more information about water cooling :
Hardware.fr / Le Watercooling facile
Presence-PC.com / Comparatif de kits Watercooling
Matbe.com / Refroidissement
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b. Small explanation, why does a brushed motor produce more heat than a brushless ?
This small explanation seems necessary to allow all of you to understand why it the TCS in its "brushed" version is so interesting.We will limit ourselves here to the two primary reasons of the heat :
The primary reason is the surface for the heat exchange to the air. The windings are on the rotor and they do not have a lot of surface to give off heat to the air. Even though the rotor rotates, it is not a turbine and the air flow in the inside of the motor is very small.
In a brushless motor the windings are fixed to the case and thus they have a lot more cooling area. This is also the reason that a brushless outrunner produces more heat than a our brushless inrunners.
The second reason is where the electricity flows from the head of the motor via the brushes to the collector. A lot of friction and thus heat is produced here. This effect is also increased when the collector has not been milled down for some time.
c. The cooling cycle of the "Thermal Cooling System"
Here are the three stages of the cooling cycle of our "Thermal Cooling System" :1. The pump receives the cool liquid from the radiator and directs it towards the blue entry on the motor plate.
2. The liquid circulates through the motor plate and picks up and stores the heat given off by the motor. The liquid is now warm and needs to be recooled. To this end it exits by the red exit of the motor plate and travels towards the radiator.
3. The radiator receives the warm liquid and guides it through its aluminium heatpipes which themselves are being cooled by the aluminium cooling fins that are cooled by the air that travels throug them.
4. Once recooled, the liquid makes its way towards the pump again and then the motor plate.
The cycle is complete.
It has to be added to this explanation that there are two "chimneys" that are mounted vertically on the pump and and in the tube between the motor plate and radiator.
These allow for emptying the circuit and to check for the level of liquid inside the cooling circuit.
