Dear Forum,



Assume that we have cooling block 1 and the water temperature coming out is 60 degrees Celcius and the flow rate through it (when it is the only cooling block in the loop) is X Liters/hour. Lets also assume that we have another cooling block 2 and the water temperature coming out is 40 degress Celcius and the flow rate throught it (when it is the only cooling block in the loop) is X/2 Liters/hours i.e. cooling block 2 is twice more restrictive than colling block 1. Which one of the following loop setups is the optimum setup for these two cooling blocks?



1. Put them in series in the same loop with cooling block 1 first (being feeded with fresh cool water assume 23 degrees ambient temperature) and then cooling block 2? In this case cooling block 2 is being feeded with water temperature of 60 degrees and cooling block 2 will also reduce the overall flow rate. Does this mean that in this case cooling block 2 will never be able to be cooled below 60 degrees (in fact there will be heat transfer from the water of 60 degrees to the cooled item 2 which in any case was not getting hotter than 40 degrees)?



2. Put them in series in the same loop with cooling block 2 first (being feeded with fresh cool water assume 23 degrees ambient temperature) and then cooling block 1? In this case cooling block 1 is being feeded with water temperature of 40 degrees and with reduced flow rate due to the restrictions of cooling block 1. Does this mean that in this case cooling block 1 will never be able to be cooled below 40 degrees?



3. Put each cooling block in a separate loop (i.e. in parallel), each loop being fed with the same cooled temperature water and both loops feeding their outputs to the radiator for the water to be cooled.



Are there any general rules for the optimum setup of cooling block loops related to the flow rate and temperatures to be cooled? Does the size of the tubes affect the overall performance in the case of multiple loops in parallel? Should the input and/or output tubes to a parallel loop system be thicker than the tubes in each parallel loop?



Regards,

Aster1x