Noctua, the Austrian manufacturer of premium-quality quiet cooling components, and Forced Physics DCT today announced a joint research partnership to explore how Forced Physics’ patented JouleForce™ micro-channel array technology can be brought to desktop PCs and workstations. The collaboration is a long-term research and development effort that is not tied to a specific product or release date.
Noctua’s experience with high-performance PC cooling also includes the NF-A12x25 G2 chromax.black fan launch.
How JouleForce Arrays Work
JouleForce™ arrays leverage geometry-driven molecular collisions at the channel walls: the boundary layer that limits conventional air cooling never fully forms, so heat is extracted along the entire length of each micro-channel. This allows large amounts of heat to be removed using air alone, without the pumps, tubing and liquid loops of water cooling, at power levels that are becoming difficult to manage with conventional air coolers.
The Engineering Challenge: Pressure and Desktop Compatibility
The central challenge is the operating point. At this stage, the micro-channel geometry that gives the arrays their thermal performance also produces a steep system impedance curve, with a pressure drop an order of magnitude and more above the range covered by conventional axial PC fans. Current implementations therefore duct the arrays to industrial blowers, high-speed centrifugal fans or vacuum pumps.
The established means of reaching such pressures are ruled out for desktop use by acoustic requirements. Investigating how the necessary static pressure levels can either be reduced or generated within the constraints of PC cases is the focus of the partnership.
Why Noctua and Forced Physics Are the Right Fit
Roland Mossig, CEO of Noctua: “Forced Physics are advancing the limits in terms of fin-to-air heat transfer, and we are excited to explore what it would take to make that work in a quiet desktop system. The pressure levels this technology requires in today’s implementations are currently supplied by equipment nobody would want on or under their desk, so this is a demanding, long-term engineering task — and one that we are eager to tackle.”
Scott Davis, Founder & CEO of Forced Physics DCT: “Desktop and workstation systems pose airflow challenges that differ fundamentally from our data centre deployments. Noctua’s expertise in quiet, high-pressure air movement makes them the ideal partner to solve them with us.”
About Forced Physics DCT
Forced Physics traces its roots to founder Scott Davis’s work in kinetic theory and accelerating molecules in micro-channels. The company’s JouleForce™ technology uses geometry-driven molecular collisions to dramatically improve heat transfer efficiency in fluid flow applications.
FULL STORY: Noctua and Forced Physics Partner on JouleForce Micro-Channel Array Cooling for Desktop Systems: https://b2g.to/3sn3f