Which parts make the best heat radiators/heatsinks?

[smjjames]

What the question says.

Honestly though, I'm surprised that SQUAD didn't include a part whose sole function is a heatsink/radiator.

[funk]

Assuming that SQUAD did not the same failure with heatmanagement as they did for aerodynamics before 1.0. I guess that they depend on real physics for heatflow. That's said, IR heat capacity of a body depends on material and Volume, therefore I assume they use the mass of a body for simplification (for tanks I've recognized, that fuel is recognized too).

Heat radiation depends mostly on surface area in reality. And everyone knows that heat flows from hot to cool mass.

My conclusion: Use parts with high surface area relative to mass eg. solarpanels, airbrakes, structural panels etc. as heatsinks. Mount them near to the heat source. Perhaps even wings could be used as heatsinks, if they aren't the source eg during supersonic flights.

[panzer1b]

What works (im assuming ur having LV-N issues), is solars, wings, and the precooler thingy in front of it. The precooler seems to have a massive heat capacity and radiates well, and the solar panels radiate well, VERY well, not to mention they power ur ship. Aside from that, really anything strapped to teh side of a nuke will help, although ur bets off with large things such as wings. Fuel tansk also help, as they have very good heat capacity, but they arent quite as great at radiating it away.

[gavman420SSJ]

i have a mining rig with a big solar panel and 16 wing sections and it still overheats to like 85%. this mechanic is broken as far as i'm concerned

[StainX]

Still trying to figure out how to build my skylon again without burning up the front mounted AV-R8 winglets! :/

How do i even know if stuff is about to explode, i mean the visual mach and heat effects don't seem to have much to do with that?

[Radam]

Still trying to figure out how to build my skylon again without burning up the front mounted AV-R8 winglets! :/

How do i even know if stuff is about to explode, i mean the visual mach and heat effects don't seem to have much to do with that?

Press alt f12 and turn on thermal debug things under physics section.

[StainX]

Press alt f12 and turn on thermal debug things under physics section.

Sure debug, but that looks not like it should be done that way!?

What about cooling those winglets? is it even possible?

[Streetwind]

i have a mining rig with a big solar panel and 16 wing sections and it still overheats to like 85%. this mechanic is broken as far as i'm concerned

Solar panels are not always useful for radiating heat... primarily because the system also calculates the effects of sun exposure.

If your mining rig is powered by solar panels, then during the day, the panels turn themselves to expose as much area to the sun as possible, so they can generate the most power. However, that also means they minimize their radiation capabilities because all that sunlight comes with heat... in fact, on a cold vessel, the solar panels might actually generate some heat!

Meanwhile at night, the solar panels have fantastic heat radiation properties due to their large area and no incoming sun - but, since they produce no power, the mining rig isn't running and thus no heat is being generated.

For maximum heat rejection you want lots of radiating surface with minimum sun exposure. Things like wing sections almost always beat solar panels by a wide margin simply because they don't rotate themselves to face the sun - especially if you can mount them so that they will stay edge-on towards the sun for the entire day (though this requires you landing your vessel in the correct orientation towards the sun).

The best radiator would be one that actively orients itself edge-on to the sun in the same way that solar panels orient themselves face-on. There is no such item in stock, but it's perfectly possible for mods to make them - Near Future Electrical had them for several versions now, even though back then it was just a gimmick. (shameless advertising ho~!)

[NathanKell]

You also want to be on the night side of the planet, to avoid both solar flux directly, and retransmitted solar flux from the body's albedo.

[gavman420SSJ]

show me a mining rig that can fill a large container without overheating. we need a magic sublimator part like nasa has for space suits