ENHANCED DATA CENTERS ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY THROUGH HIGHLY INTEGRATED COOLING

October 18, 2019 in News & Media

  • Title of project: ENHANCED DATA CENTERS ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY THROUGH HIGHLY INTEGRATED COOLING
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  • 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.
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  • How to apply: Send your resume to Dr. Moghaddam
  • Faculty contact/webpage: Dr. Saeed Moghaddam, saeedmog@ufl.edu, http://www2.mae.ufl.edu/saeedmog/