A comparison analysis of air, liquid, and two-phase cooling of data centers

Abstract

This paper provides analysis of air vs. liquid and two-phase flow cooling for a data center application. A new micro channel-based forced convection evaporation cooling is introduced, and its performance is compared against single phase and conventional phase change cooling systems. The technique offers substantially reduced thermal resistances with associated pumping power requirements significantly below that of conventional systems. It removes the need for compressors in a typical phase change cooling as it relies on a combination of forced convection boiling and thin film evaporation mechanism. Comparison analysis of the three techniques may provide additional incentives for adoption of energy efficient liquid cooling in next generation data centers. Issues remaining with large scale adoption of liquid and phase change cooling in data centers are also addressed in this paper.