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A radiator is a device that transfers heat to a medium primarily through thermal radiation.In practice, the term radiator is often applied to any number of devices in which a fluid circulates through exposed pipes (often with fins or other means of increasing surface area), notwithstanding that such devices tend to transfer heat mainly by convection and might logically be called convectors.
More simply they may be oil-water coolers, where an oil pipe is inserted inside the water radiator. Though the water is hotter than the ambient air, its higher thermal conductivity offers comparable cooling (within limits) from a less complex and thus cheaper and more reliable [citation needed] oil cooler. Less commonly, power steering fluid ...
For water-cooled engines on aircraft and surface vehicles, waste heat is transferred from a closed loop of water pumped through the engine to the surrounding atmosphere by a radiator. Water has a higher heat capacity than air, and can thus move heat more quickly away from the engine, but a radiator and pumping system add weight, complexity, and ...
The Roman hypocaust is an early example of a type of radiator for building space heating. Franz San Galli, a Prussian-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg, is credited with inventing the heating radiator around 1855, [1] [2] having received a radiator patent in 1857, [3] but American Joseph Nason developed a primitive radiator in 1841 [4] and received a number of U.S. patents for ...
However, all common antifreeze additives also have lower heat capacities than water, and do reduce water's ability to act as a coolant when added to it. [2] Because water has good properties as a coolant, water plus antifreeze is used in internal combustion engines and other heat transfer applications, such as HVAC chillers and solar water heaters.
Steam entering the radiator condenses and gives up its latent heat, returning to liquid water. The radiator in turn heats the air of the room, and provides some direct radiant heat. The condensate water returns to the boiler either by gravity or with the assistance of a pump.
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In such a system, flow to the individual radiators cannot be modulated as all of the water is flowing through every radiator in the zone. Slightly more complicated systems use a "main" pipe that flows uninterrupted around the zone; the individual radiators tap off a small portion of the flow in the main pipe.