Enhanced immersion two-phase liquid cooling thermal management for data centres

• Main Author: Loh, Aloysius Chuan Liang
• Other Authors: Fei Duan
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/141013
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The present study aims to develop and investigate the uprising trend of cooling method. Two phase liquid immersion cooling is the state-of-the-art cooling methodology that is garnering increasing attention in the data centres industry. This contemporary method of cooling can reshape the data centre industry if proven to be more effective than air cooling, the commonly employed method of cooling for data centres at present. Unlike its predecessors, this method of cooling is self-sufficient and self-reliant theoretically. It means that it can run on its own without much human intervention. By utilising simple concepts of evaporation and condensation, the cooling method can reduce the amount of coolant used over a long period of time. This unique way of cooling requires a tank in a sealed condition. It creates a closed loop system. In addition, it eliminates the need for chillers. Consequently, it can dramatically reduce the electrical consumption of data centres. In this study, a two-phase immersion cooling tank was managed to design required to hold the necessary equipment and components for the experiments. Subsequently, the in-depth research and data collection were made before concluding on the working fluid to be employed for the experiments. Furthermore, the different types of experiments were conducted, and the crucial data were collected to prove the effectiveness of two-phase liquid immersion cooling. The experiments, which utilises air cooling and two-phase liquid immersion cooling, revolve around changing the temperatures of the either the water running through the condenser coils or changing the working capacity of the CPUs. From these results, the analysis was conducted on the different types of cooling before drawing the conclusions. Future works are suggested to improve the two-phase immersion cooling system.