In a message dated 9/21/2005 4:59:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
m1garand@speakeasy.net writes:
Here's the scoop: Aluminum is less conductive than brass and copper,
however, the fins in copper radiators have to be soldered/brazed to the
copper tubes. The lead-based braze is FAR less conductive than copper
or aluminum, which makes it hard for the heat to go from the tubes to
the fins. Therefore the conductivity of an aluminum radiator (which is
welded with aluminum) is much better than the average conductivity of
the copper/lead system. If they could find a way to friction-weld
copper fins to tubes, a copper radiator would be much better. However,
with the recent uptick in copper prices, we probably couldn't afford it.
That's part of the story, but there's yet more.
The most efficient radiators use wide thin tubes for maximum heat transfer
from the tubes to the fins. Under pressure, wide thin tubes have a tendency to
become round tubes. To prevent that, the tubes must be made strong enough to
withstand that tendency. The way to make then strong is to use heavy gauge
material. Heavy gauge copper is much heavier than heavy gauge aluminum.
To make a radiator with strong enough tubes out of copper would require a
very heavy radiator. Where weight or cost are not factors, copper wins out
every time.
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