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Numerical Investigation on Thermal Performance of Single-Phase Immersion Cooling Systems Using Oil Coolant

Yiming Rongyang1, Zhenyue Yu1, Ruisheng Liang2,*, Wei Su1, Jianjian Wei2,3
1 Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Power Construction Corporation of China, Hangzhou, 310014, China
2 Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
3 Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Clean Energy and Carbon Neutrality, Hangzhou, 310027, China
* Corresponding Author: Ruisheng Liang. Email: email
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Fluid Flow, Heat and Mass Transfer within Novel Cooling Structures)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2025.059637

Received 13 October 2024; Accepted 02 December 2024; Published online 09 January 2025

Abstract

Data center cooling systems are substantial energy consumers, and managing the heat generated by electronic devices is becoming more complex as chip power levels continue to rise. The single-phase immersion cooling (SPIC) server with oil coolant is numerically investigated using the validated Re-Normalization Group (RNG) k-ε model. For the investigated scenarios where coolant velocity at the tank inlet is 0.004 m/s and the total power is 740 W, the heat transfer between the heat sinks and the coolant is dominated by natural convection, although forced convection mediates the overall heat transfer inside the tank. The maximum velocity of coolant through the heat sink is 0.035 m/s and the average heat transfer coefficient is up to 75.8 W/(m2·K). The geometry of the heat sink is important for the cooling performance. Increasing both the fin thickness and number enhances the natural convection effect of the heat sink, but also increases the flow resistance. The heat sink with a fin thickness of 3 mm performs the best, reducing the average graphics processing unit (GPU) temperature from 71.3°C to 68.6°C. A heat sink with an optimal fin number of 16 reduces the average GPU temperature to 67.7°C. As for the effect of fin height, increasing it from 15 to 30 mm results in increases in the heat transfer area and flow rate by about 72% and 32%, respectively, which reduces the average GPU temperature to 65.2°C. Therefore, the importance of fin parameters ranks in the following order: fin height, number, and thickness. This study highlights the potential application of oil coolants in SPIC systems and offers theoretical guidance for the efficient design of natural convection cooling solutions.

Keywords

Oil coolant; server; natural convection; heat sink
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