Performance improvement of high-density data center via two-phase liquid immersion cooling

Abstract This paper introduces two distinct approaches for efficiently cooling high-density data centers with a capacity of up to 1168 kW, aiming to achieve the optimal cooling method for extracting heat from electronic servers. The investigation involves a comparative analysis between air-based cooling, incorporating modifications to hot aisle containment, and liquid-based cooling utilizing a two-phase immersion system. Three-dimensional simulations are conducted employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Furthermore, the simulation examines the influence of introducing copper coating materials to server components in liquid cooling, varying the thickness to enhance heat transfer efficiency. The analysis demonstrates that, in liquid cooling, the maximum server temperature diminishes to 65 °C, and power usage effectiveness improves from 2 in the air cooling system to 1.01 in liquid cooling. The application of copper coating results in a 13% enhancement in the gradual temperature distribution among servers, especially in high-power servers, and eliminates most hot spots by decreasing the maximum temperature. However, the simulation indicates a comparatively modest temperature improvement of 8% when coating low-power servers.