- Title of project: ENHANCED DATA CENTERS ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY THROUGH HIGHLY INTEGRATED COOLING
- Funding agency (Optional):
- Description: Data centers energy consumption has
been increasing at a fast pace and this trend is expected to continue by
the emergence of massive hyperscale computing facilities, along with
the business world’s embrace of cloud computing and big data. Cooling is
responsible for nearly half of the data centers energy consumption. For
a sustainable growth of this power-hungry sector of the energy market,
new cooling technologies must be developed. Traditional cooling systems
involve supply of cold air produced by chillers and air-handlers to
servers. However, substantial rise in power density has necessitated use
of a heat transfer medium with a higher thermal capacity. In recent
years, energy-efficient cooling of data centers has been demonstrated
through the use of water as the cooling medium. Furthermore, it has been
shown that a reduction or elimination of thermal resistances between
the junction and ambient, by bringing water close to the server rack and
even inside the trays, electronics can be maintained at an acceptable
temperature with a hot water that can directly release its heat into the
ambient via a cooling tower. This new approach, often called “free” or
“above-ambient-temperature” cooling, promises to substantially reduce
the data centers energy consumption. However, reliability and cost
issues are impeding adoption of this promising technology. In this
research, a novel cooling heat sink and system architecture is
implemented. The new approach is enabled by a recent “breakthrough” in
phase-change heat transfer science accomplished at the University of
Florida that has resolved fundamental device and system level issues
associated with the existing two-phase cooling technologies. The
extremely high cooling capacity of the new technique allows to handle
heat flux levels an order of magnitude higher than that of today’s
technology, alleviating data centers cooling challenge for the
foreseeable future. - Restrictions/Constraints:
- Knowledge and skills needed:
- How to apply: Send your resume to Dr. Moghaddam
- Faculty contact/webpage: Dr. Saeed Moghaddam, saeedmog@ufl.edu, https://neslabs.mae.ufl.edu/
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